Men's single skating

Single skating

Single skating is a discipline of figure skating, wherein a single person skates alone. Men's singles and ladies' singles are both Olympic disciplines and are both governed by the International Skating Union. The other Olympic figure skating events are pair skating and ice dancing...

was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Four figure skating events were held at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, at the Palavela venue.Lithuanian ice dancers Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas became the first figure skaters to compete at five Olympics....

.

This individual event was structured in a similar manner to the pairs event, with a short program and a free skate. 30 skaters entered the short program, but only the top 24 competitors continued to the free skate.

The clear favorite before the competition was three-time world champion Evgeny Plushenko, who withdrew from the 2005 World Championships due to injury. Reigning world champion Stéphane Lambiel

Stéphane Lambiel

Stéphane Lambiel is a Swiss figure skater and a choreographer. He is a two-time World Champion, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Champion and a nine-time Swiss national champion...

 was considered Plushenko's main competition for the gold. Other notable competitors coming into the event included Canadians Jeffrey Buttle

Jeffrey Buttle

Jeffrey Buttle is a Canadian figure skater. He is the 2006 Winter Olympics bronze medalist, the 2008 World champion, the 2002 & 2004 Four Continents champion and the 2005-2007 Canadian champion. On March 22, 2008, Buttle became the first Canadian man since Elvis Stojko in 1997 to win the World Title...

 (the reigning world silver medalist) and Emanuel Sandhu

Emanuel Sandhu

Emanuel Sandhu is a Canadian figure skater and dancer. He is a three-time Canadian national champion and the 2004 Grand Prix champion.-Personal life:...

, France's Brian Joubert

Brian Joubert

Brian Joubert is a French figure skater. He is the 2007 World Champion, a three-time European champion, a seven-time French National champion, and the 2006-7 Grand Prix Final champion...

, Japan's Daisuke Takahashi

Daisuke Takahashi

is a Japanese figure skater, notable as the 2010 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2010 World Champion, the 2007 World silver medalist, a two-time Four Continents Champion, and a four-time Japanese national champion....

, and the strong American team of Johnny Weir

Johnny Weir

John Garvin "Johnny" Weir is an American figure skater. He is a three-time U.S. National Champion , the 2008 Worlds bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, and the 2001 World Junior Champion....

, Evan Lysacek

Evan Lysacek

Evan Frank Lysacek is an American figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, the 2005 & 2007 Four Continents champion, the 2007 & 2008 U.S. national champion, and the 2009/2010 Grand Prix Final champion....

 (reigning world bronze medalist), and Matt Savoie.

Short Program

The Men's short program took place on February 14. Plushenko took the early lead after the short program. He set a new personal best (also the world record) score with a massive 90.66 points, over 10 points ahead of Weir, who finished in second with 80.00 points. Lambiel doubled his planned triple Axel but still ended up in third place with a score of 79.04 points, less than a point behind Weir. Joubert was fourth in the short program with 77.77 points, followed by Takahashi and Buttle with 73.77 and 73.29 points respectively. Buttle and fellow Canadian Sandhu, who ranked seventh, both had trouble with their jumps, but their high program component scores kept them in contention for medals. Savoie had a solid skate to finish eighth, while teammate Lysacek fell on his triple Axel and doubled his triple flip to finish a disappointing tenth in this phase of the competition.

Free Skate

In the free skate, completed on February 16, Plushenko set another world record by garnering 167.67 points for his free program. He started his program off with quad-triple-double and had only one flaw, doubling his triple flip. He finished with the highest technical and program component scores of the night.

Despite struggling with his jumps in his free skate (completing no triple Axels), Lambiel's opening quad combination and exquisite spins kept him in second overall, though he finished only fourth in the free skate. Buttle's free skate, although marred by a fall on his quad attempt, had the second highest program components scores which helped to finish him second in the free skate and third overall. Joubert had a crowd-pleasing free skate but made several jump errors and finished a disappointing seventh in the free skate, sixth overall.

The Americans got off to a strong start in the free skate led by Lysacek. He skated his best free of the year and landed two triple Axels, getting 152.28 points. This was the third best free of the night and a huge improvement from his short, moving him up to fourth overall. Weir omitted his planned quad toe and only had one jump combination, which left him short on technical content and in sixth place in the free skate. Overall, he finished right behind Lysacek in fifth. Savoie had a solid skate with gorgeous transitions and jumps, though he doubled his two final planned triples to finish fifth in the free and seventh overall.

Takahashi skated fairly strongly in his free but was penalized in the marking for repeating too many jumps and underrotating others. He finished ninth in the free and eighth overall. Belgium's Kevin van der Perren

Kevin van der Perren

Kevin van der Perren is a Belgian figure skater. He is the 2007 & 2009 European bronze medalist, a three-time Grand Prix medalist, and a seven-time Belgian national champion...

 made huge leaps in the free with 132.03 points and moving up from thirteenth in the short to ninth overall. Sandhu, on the other hand, fell apart in his free skate, falling twice and popping a couple of jumps. His high program component scores couldn't keep him in the top ten. He finished thirteenth overall.

Short program

Pl.	Name	Nation									Deduction
1			90.66	49.69	40.97	8.29	7.82	8.29	8.25	8.32	0	#02
2			80.00	40.99	39.01	7.86	7.64	7.79	7.79	7.93	0	#13
3			79.04	40.61	38.43	7.79	7.50	7.68	7.64	7.82	0	#11
4			77.77	40.59	37.18	7.57	7.11	7.57	7.36	7.57	0	#23
5			73.77	38.45	35.32	7.21	6.86	7.04	7.07	7.14	0	#01
6			73.29	37.01	37.28	7.46	7.39	7.36	7.46	7.61	1	#05
7			69.75	33.00	37.75	7.57	7.36	7.50	7.50	7.82	1	#30
8			69.15	35.22	33.93	6.89	6.68	6.79	6.75	6.82	0	#22
9			67.66	37.12	30.54	6.29	5.82	6.14	6.04	6.25	0	#08
10			67.55	33.80	34.75	7.07	6.68	7.00	6.96	7.04	1	#26
11			67.39	36.29	31.10	6.50	5.93	6.21	6.21	6.25	0	#14
12			67.20	35.02	32.18	6.50	6.29	6.46	6.39	6.54	0	#03
13			65.36	33.50	32.86	6.61	6.36	6.68	6.50	6.71	1	#18
14			64.65	35.58	29.07	6.04	5.61	5.82	5.71	5.89	0	#15
15			63.64	34.29	29.35	6.18	5.64	5.82	5.82	5.89	0	#06
16			63.41	33.95	29.46	6.07	5.64	5.93	5.86	5.96	0	#21
17			62.17	34.28	27.89	5.71	5.43	5.61	5.50	5.64	0	#10
18			61.61	29.90	31.71	6.57	6.21	6.29	6.32	6.32	0	#27
19			61.17	30.48	31.69	6.54	6.11	6.29	6.32	6.43	1	#09
20			60.52	27.94	32.58	6.68	6.36	6.43	6.57	6.54	0	#19
21			60.23	30.55	30.68	6.46	6.00	6.04	6.14	6.04	1	#04
22			59.71	30.25	29.46	6.04	5.64	5.89	5.89	6.00	0	#16
23			59.55	31.34	28.21	5.89	5.43	5.57	5.61	5.71	0	#07
24			55.07	29.67	25.40	5.29	4.86	5.07	5.00	5.18	0	#29
25			53.46	27.96	26.50	5.50	5.11	5.32	5.25	5.32	1	#25
26			53.40	29.44	23.96	5.04	4.57	4.71	4.82	4.82	0	#12
27			52.18	24.46	27.72	5.71	5.36	5.54	5.50	5.61	0	#17
28			49.68	24.32	26.36	5.50	5.00	5.29	5.21	5.36	1	#20
29			46.48	20.28	26.20	5.46	5.07	5.25	5.21	5.21	0	#28
30			42.11	19.50	22.61	4.75	4.29	4.57	4.50	4.50	0	#24

Free skating

Pl.	Name	Nation									Deduction
1			167.67	85.25	82.42	8.46	7.75	8.39	8.18	8.43	0	#19
2			154.30	76.80	78.50	7.79	7.75	7.82	7.89	8.00	1	#22
3			152.58	78.24	74.34	7.50	7.14	7.50	7.46	7.57	0	#13
4			152.17	76.89	76.28	7.75	7.39	7.54	7.64	7.82	1	#20
5			137.52	65.80	71.72	7.25	7.00	7.11	7.21	7.29	0	#14
6			136.63	61.27	75.36	7.75	7.25	7.50	7.57	7.61	0	#21
7			135.12	62.54	73.58	7.54	7.11	7.32	7.36	7.46	1	#23
8			132.03	66.01	66.02	6.75	6.36	6.68	6.54	6.68	0	#10
9			131.12	58.82	73.30	7.54	7.14	7.25	7.36	7.36	1	#24
10			130.19	65.97	65.22	6.75	6.29	6.50	6.57	6.50	1	#7
11			128.88	65.16	63.72	6.75	6.00	6.36	6.39	6.36	0	#17
12			123.63	55.13	68.50	6.89	6.71	6.86	6.86	6.93	0	#18
13			121.98	66.04	56.94	6.25	5.39	5.68	5.54	5.61	1	#3
14			120.49	52.27	70.22	7.21	6.86	6.82	7.11	7.11	2	#16
15			120.36	63.14	57.22	5.96	5.50	5.68	5.68	5.79	0	#1
16			119.94	59.00	60.94	6.36	5.68	6.11	6.18	6.14	0	#9
17			118.53	54.23	64.30	6.61	6.25	6.36	6.43	6.50	0	#15
18			116.47	57.97	58.50	6.14	5.57	5.79	5.86	5.89	0	#12
19			116.42	55.92	62.50	6.39	6.11	6.07	6.36	6.32	2	#6
20			112.05	51.05	62.00	6.43	5.96	6.11	6.25	6.25	1	#2
21			109.43	53.93	57.50	6.00	5.57	5.61	5.82	5.75	2	#11
22			102.40	48.32	56.08	5.75	5.50	5.50	5.68	5.61	2	#4
23			101.70	45.26	57.44	5.79	5.57	5.75	5.79	5.82	1	#8
24			90.40	42.20	50.20	5.14	4.89	4.96	5.04	5.07	2	#5

Final standings

Rank	Name	Nation	Total Points	SP	FS Free skating The free skating competition of figure skating, sometimes called the "free skate" or "long program", is usually the second of two phases in major figure skating competitions in single skating and pair skating. It is the longer of the two programs, the other one being the Short Program...
1			258.33	1	1
2			231.21	3	4
3			227.59	6	2
4			220.13	10	3
5			216.63	2	6
6			212.89	4	7
7			206.67	8	5
8			204.89	5	9
9			197.39	13	8
10			196.27	11	11
11			191.80	18	10
12			190.83	12	12
13			190.24	7	14
14			186.19	9	17
15			184.59	14	16
16			182.21	21	13
17			180.11	15	18
18			180.07	22	15
19			177.59	19	19
20			172.84	16	21
21			172.57	20	20
22			163.87	17	23
23			161.95	23	22
24			145.47	24	24
Did not advance to free skate
25			53.46	25
26			53.40	26
27			52.18	27
28			49.68	28
29			46.48	29
30			42.11	30

Referee:

• Rita Zonnekeyn

Technical Controller:

• Fabio Bianchetti
  Fabio Bianchetti
  Fabio Bianchetti is a member of the International Skating Union Technical Committee. He took the Judge's Oath at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening CeremonyHe is the son of Sonia Bianchetti, also a long-time former ISU official.-References:*...
  
  

Technical Specialist:

• Katerina Kamberska

Assistant Technical Specialist:

• Viktor Petrenko
  Viktor Petrenko
  Viktor Vasylovych Petrenko is a Ukrainian former competitive figure skater who represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Ukraine during his career. He is the 1992 Olympic Champion for the Unified Team...
  
  

Judges:

• Kenji Amako
• Hermann Schulz
  Hermann Schulz
  Hermann Schulz is a former German figure skater.Hermann Schulz learned his first triple jumps at the club Dresdner DEC. Coached by Ingrid Lehmann he became a world class figure skater. Already with the age of 13 he participated at the European Championships in Copenhagen and ended up on place 8th...
  
  
• Mona Jonsson
• Patrick Ibens
• Alexander Penchev
• Raffaella Locatelli
• Jiang Yibing
  Jiang Yibing
  Jiang Yibing is a Chinese figure skater. She represented China at the 1988 Winter Olympics, where she placed 25th. She also competed at the 1985 World Figure Skating Championships, where she placed 23rd...
  
  
• Nicolae Bellu
• Alexei Shirshov
• Philippe Meriguet
• Steve Winkler
• William Thompson