Crystal Skate

The highest stakes in figure skating have always been in the men's competition. They have the most difficult elements, so it's only natural they should receive the greatest glory. However, having fans expect great things from you is a double-edged sword and many a skater has chosen a grand programme just for the sake of grandness, ensuring a big fat flop. Let's see how some of the top skaters decide to play their hand this season:   Evan Lysacek  - his name is on everyone's lips because when an Olympic champion sets his mind on a second gold medal, he is bound to become 'the skater of the moment' (at least as far as America is concerned). This is a skater whose always had grand programmes (he won the last Olympics with Scheherazade ) so there was really no point in him going another direction. For the short program he chose the oh-so-famous Swan Lake  by Pyotr Iylich Tchaikovsky. The bad thing about this music is that it's been chosen so many times by so m...

He wouldn't be the first Olympic champion to try and score another gold medal, but could Evan Lysacek be the first one (at least in recent years) to actually achieve his goal? The American's plans to leave Sochi with a gold medal have been common knowledge for the past three seasons, when he constantly tried to come back on ice, but failed. In 2011/2012, he had some disagreements with the US Federation and in 2012/2013 he got injured right before Skate America. This was followed by a hernia surgery that prevented him from competing at the National Championships. Could fate be telling him something? Now that he's feeling a lot better, the big question for Lysacek is not whether he can perform at his best or not, but whether his best is still good enough. Lysacek's Olympic victory was so acclaimed not only for defeating Evgeni Plushenko, but also for lacking a quadruple jump, thus proving that technical elements do not make or break a programme. Four years later, the ...