American Evan Lysacek Defeats Russian Evgeny Plushenko for Men's Figure Skating Gold Medal

Wow.  If you did not watch the men's Olympic skating final tonight, you missed an amazing competition.  So many of us thought that Russia's Evgeny Plushenko was unbeatable.  But American Evan Lysacek went out there and beat him tonight - by about one point.  And how did he beat him?  From what I can tell, it came down to some higher grade of execution points, a more difficult spin, and more difficult footwork.  Plushenko landed his much-hyped quad, but Lysacek was able to make up the points elsewhere.  Japan's Daisuke Takahashi fell on an opening quad attempt but was able to hold on with an otherwise perfect performance for the bronze medal.  Lysacek truly beat the best tonight.  He is the first American man to win the Olympic gold since Brian Boitano in Calgary in 1988. 

American Johnny Weir was also nearly flawless tonight.  He had a slight stumble but did not receive great scores from the judges, and the scores were met with booing.  Still, it was an amazing couple of performances for Weir, and a great way to end his Olympic career. 

Another bright spot this evening was American Jeremy Abbott.  Despite a fall on his initial quadruple toe loop attempt, and essentially giving up on the next jump, Abbott was able to pull himself up from 15th place after the short program to be in ninth place.