American Evan Lysacek glided to Olympic gold in men's figure skating Thursday in a stunning upset of Russian Yevgeny Plushenko's pursuit of back-to-back titles. It was a crushing blow for Plushenko, who had come out of retirement to rescue Russian skating, and to his nation, a traditional winter sports powerhouse clamoring for more than one gold medal six days into the Winter Games. The surprising men's free skate final capped a day dominated by the women, who served up a few surprises themselves. Germany's Maria Riesch came back from a disappointing downhill to win the women's super combined crown after American Lindsey Vonn tumbled and ruined her bid for a second Olympic gold medal in two days. Over on the snowboard halfpipe, Australia's Torah Bright sliced her way to her country's first gold of these Games and speedskater Christine Nesbitt picked up the third gold for host nation Canada. Another woman helped her country reach an Olympic milestone when Norwegian biathlete Tora Berger skied and shot her way to the country's 100th Winter Games gold, the first nation to achieve that mark. Her teammate Emil Hegle Svendsen, however, quickly made that 101 in the men's biathlon 20 km individual. Thursday was also a good day for beleaguered organizers, with no new reports of operational snags after a string of problems, ranging from million-dollar ticketholder refunds to unreliable ice grooming machines. The ice was just fine for Lysacek, the first American to win the title since Brian Boitano in 1988, also in Canadian hosted Games in Calgary. Unlike the strong favorite Plushenko, he did not have to attempt any quadruple jumps to win over the judges. Plushenko would have been the first man in nearly 60 years to win successive Olympic figure skating titles. The United States consolidated its position on top of the medals table with six gold, four having come in the last two days. The day started with all eyes on America's golden girl Vonn after her golden run in a treacherous downhill Wednesday which featured a succession of racers careering off the course. The downhill diva, who came to Vancouver with a shin injury, led after the first downhill run and was on course to finish on the podium in the combined when she clipped a gate and tumbled within sight of the finish line. Julia Mancuso of the US stayed on her skis to finish second to add another silver to her second place in the individual downhill. With three Olympic medals, Mancuso joined Bode Miller as the most decorated US skiers. Back with a vengeance was the combined's bronze medal winner Anja Paerson of Sweden, who survived a spectacular crash on the big hill at the end of Wednesday's downhill. A deeply bruised Paerson decided to race only at the last minute, but once her bronze was secured, she did not hesitate to do her trademark face-first celebration dive on the snow. Paerson now holds a record-equalling sixth Alpine medal. Germany moved to second in the medal standings on four golds with Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and Canada on three each. Canada's “own the podium” program for the home Olympics has begun to reap respectable rewards as Nesbitt garnered the third gold for the fanatical home crowd. She claimed the Olympic title by two-hundredths of a second and said the way she raced “wasn't pretty.” Australia's first gold came almost miraculously as Bright went from last to first in the halfpipe by pulling off a series of tricks to make up for a first final run with two falls. The Canadian men's hockey team, one of the Olympic favorites, did not have such a good day, even though it managed to win. It just eked out a 3-2 victory over Switzerland, the same team which beat it at the Turin Games in a stunning upset. Pavol Demitra also scored in a sudden-death shootout as Slovakia beat Russia 2-1 to boost its chances of advancing to the quarter-final round. In the other game, the United States beat Norway 6-1. Russia fumes Yevgeny Plushenko's failure to defend his Winter Olympics figure skating title sparked a backlash in Russia with accusing fingers being pointed at the judging system in Vancouver. Plushenko's wife demanded that Russian authorities publicly defend her husband who was relegated into second position by world champion Evan Lysacek despite the American's more conservative performance. __
