Three-time World Champion, seven-time European Champion, four-time Grand Prix Final gold medalist and a holder of three Olympic trophies, Evgeni Plushenko doesn’t need to be introduced to the public as his name has already become synonymous with success, will and victory. At 30 he is one of the most titled figure skaters in the world. And the Sochi Olympics are just another occasion to replenish his award box. With 60 gold, 15 silver and 4 bronze medals - Evgeni Plushenko started skating at the age of four and won his first competition when he was only seven. No wonder that when the ice rink in Volgograd where Plushenko trained closed, he chose to move alone to Saint Petersburg to work with the legendary Russian coach Alexei Mishin, rather than to quit skating. Eleven-year-old Evgeni faced numerous difficulties during his first time in St. Pete. 1000 miles away from his family, living alone in a communal flat - these circumstances obviously did not match his young age. But his strong will prevailed and with the financial and moral support of his coach Alexei Mishin, Evgeni's life started to improve. At age14 he won the 1997 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, in Seoul, South Korea. At 15 he won the bronze medal at the senior World Figure Skating Championships of 1998, causing a buzz around his name among judges and commentators - everybody started talking about the “new wonder boy”. He continued to rise in the senior field during 1998 and 1999, but a real breakthrough came in the following season when Plushenko won 7 out of 9 competitions and established himself as a force to be reckoned with. He was already the reigning and two-time Russian Champion, when he won his first Grand Prix Final and the first European title. At the age of only 18 became a World Champion. Since then Plushenko won basically every title there was to win except for Olympic gold. Evgeni entered the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City as the reigning World Champion. He finished in second place overall to win his first Olympic Silver. In the following Olympic cycle leading up to the 2006 Olympic Games, Evgeni took the figure skating world by storm, having never finished off the podium, as he won 19 out of the 21 competitions he entered. The beginning of 2005 found Plushenko battling with severe injuries, nevertheless, he won the Grand Prix, Grand Prix Final, Russian Nationals and European Championship that season. However, he was forced to withdraw from the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, due to a serious groin injury that required surgery, which he underwent in Germany just a year before the 2006 Olympics in Turin. Health problems didn’t prevent Plushenko from setting a record at the Winter Games. After this triumph Plushenko took a break from competitive skating. Plushenko finished second overall at the Winter Games in Vancouver, ultimately winning the silver medal with a total score of 256.36. He became the first male skater in modern history to have won three Olympic medals in three consecutive Olympic Games. Following a break of almost two years and a knee surgery, which demanded a rehabilitation period, Plushenko went back to full training in the autumn of 2011. He took part in the European Championship 2012 in the UK, where he skated in the Qualification Round and the Short program with a knee and neck injury resulting in him omitting his trademark jump, the quad toe, from his short routine. However, on the night of the Free program, overcoming pain, Plushenko skated a flawless performance, received a standing ovation from the audience and finished triumphantly on top of the European podium for the seventh time in his career with a score of 176.52 (and total 261.23), achieving a new personal best and the highest score ever at the continent’s Championship. In November 2012 Evgeni underwent another serious surgery and resumed working on quads only three days before the 2013 Russian Championships in Sochi. After winning his 10th national title Evgeni has announced that he is preparing to realize his dream to compete in Sochi 2014, at his 4th Olympic Games.
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