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Tiebreaker Gives Lysacek U.S. Crown

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By NANCY ARMOUR, The Associated Press

Published: January 28, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. - This is as close as a rivalry can get.
Evan Lysacek won his second straight title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday, despite finishing with the same score as Johnny Weir. The two - who have combined to win the last five U.S. crowns - both finished with 244.77 points. But Lysacek won the free skate, 162.72 to 161.37, and that's the tiebreaker.

"If you were scripting this whole deal, you probably couldn't have done any better job than this," Lysacek said.

Fans weren't quite sure what to make of the results, though. The scoreboard showed the two as even, so when Weir was announced as the runner-up, they booed. Stephen Carriere, last year's world junior champion, was third with 228.06 points.

But Weir has no reason to hang his head about this result. It's certainly a much better showing than last year, when an awful free skate dropped him to third and prompted him to uproot his entire life. He moved to New Jersey, and now trains with Galina Zmievskaya, who coached Olympic gold medalists Viktor Petrenko and Oksana Baiul.

"It's really fantastic vindication to know I came back and didn't totally fall apart," Weir said.

And just wait until next year. Odds are, these two will be at it again.

Lysacek and Weir have a back-and-forth that's one of the best things going in skating. Weir won the U.S. title from 2004 to 2006, while Lysacek was winning a pair of bronze medals at the world championships.

But Lysacek has had the edge at home recently, now winning the last two U.S. titles.

Lysacek had said he wasn't going to worry about the results this year, that coming in as the defending champion would give him a confidence boost, not a case of the nerves. It didn't quite work out that way.

Skating to "Tosca," he didn't have his usual sharpness or precision, and until his last two sections of footwork, his free skate lacked his usual emotion. The only thing that wasn't subdued was his slicked-back hair and white satin shirt.

He landed his quadruple toe loop jump on two feet, and needed to do a turn before the triple toe that's supposed to be a combination. He wasn't very secure on the landings of either of his triple axels, too, though he held on to both of them.

He did end the program nicely, though. Four of his elements - two jump combinations and a triple lutz and double axel - came after the halfway mark, which earn bonus points.

His straight-line footwork is filled with intricate steps and kicks and fast hops and turns, and it always gets a nice reaction from the crowd. Sunday was no different.

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