Commanding Lead for Plushenko

Just as everyone had said it would, even Johnny Weir, the best America had to offer, the men’s figure skating event at the 2006 Winter Games quickly and emphatically devolved Tuesday into two separate events.

There was the one starring Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko.

And then there was the one for everyone else.

Three times a world champion, silver medalist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Plushenko, who by quirk of the draw was the second skater on the ice, skated with efficiency if not compelling artistry, made no mistakes and built such a commanding lead with his short program that -- barring a major misstep in Thursday’s long program -- he will be skating not just for gold but for his place in Olympic history.

Weir, 21, of Newark, Del., performing with fluidity and precision, will start his long program in second place -- albeit far behind Plushenko under the reformed scoring system now in use after the judging scandal at the 2002 Games.

Plushenko ended with a score of 90.66 -- a record for the short program under the refashioned system. Plushenko holds the other top three marks under the new system as well.

“Of course I am happy with the result today because I did [a] personal best at the Olympic Games,” he said.

Weir got 80 even.

“I think the judges are starting to understand what I am, what I’m all about,” said Weir, who skated with a red glove that he calls Camille on his right hand.

Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland, the 2005 world champion -- he won when Plushenko pulled out, citing injury -- stands third, at 79.04.

No one else broke 78.

Matt Savoie, 25, of Peoria, Ill., who has a master’s degree in urban planning and will attend law school at Cornell in the fall, and Evan Lysacek, 20, who trains in El Segundo, are well behind, Savoie in eighth place, Lysacek in 10th.

Lysacek, the bronze medalist at last year’s world championships, fell hard on his first jump, a triple axel, and never recovered. He said he was inexplicably “a little too uptight.”

Figure skating has long been one of the glamour events of the Winter Games and yet the men skated Tuesday before 4,862 at the Palavela arena, which seats slightly more than 8,000, testimony perhaps to Plushenko’s domination of the field. “Go, Trifun!” came the shout from the upper deck when Trifun Zivanovic, a teacher at Pickwick Ice Center in Burbank who is skating here for Serbia and Montenegro, his father’s native country, came out for his performance -- a shout that could be heard so clearly that Zivanovic waved hello. He finished the night in 26th place.

When Plushenko skated early in the evening, the Palavela arena was not even half full. The slash of his skates echoed around the hall. He skated for just under three minutes in what seemed less a performance than prelude to coronation.

Weir, who last month won his third consecutive U.S. championship, had said before last week’s opening ceremony that Plushenko was the overwhelming favorite.

Jeffrey Buttle of Canada, the 2005 world championships silver medalist, said of Plushenko after floundering on a triple lutz and sinking to sixth, “Obviously, he has the best goods out there. It’s his title to give up.”

Philippe Candeloro of France, bronze medalist at Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998, was on hand and said, “As always, Evgeni is doing a different competition than the others.”

None of the Americans dared a quadruple jump. Plushenko executed the only one he tried, a quadruple toe loop, then moved immediately into a clean triple toe loop.

The quad was not a dazzler. Plushenko had to gut out a clean landing, but gut it out he did.

“That is the great guy and the strong guy,” Candeloro said.

After that, Plushenko’s would-be rivals -- with the exception of Weir -- faltered.

Lambiel, bidding to become the first Swiss to win an Olympic skating medal since Hans Gerschwiler in 1948, also landed a quad. But he was too slow on his first jump, a triple axel, and had to settle for a double.

In 2004, Brian Joubert of France defeated Plushenko for the European title. Here, affecting a James Bond motif, his black-and-white costume decked out with “007” on the back, Joubert put his right hand down on the ice while trying a quad and ended the night looking up at Plushenko from fourth.

Only Weir rose to the occasion, his first jump in particular, a triple axel, marked by grace and power. Even so, his best was still, as he acknowledged, a distant second best.

“I’m not conceding,” Weir said. “I’m just being realistic.”