2008 Worlds free skate | Canadian wins Men's title | Buttle 🇨🇦🥇Joubert 🇫🇷🥈 Weir 🥉🇺🇸

HD format, British coverage (commentators: Nicky Slater, Chris Howarth)
Men's free skate, 2008 World Figure Skating Championships (Goteborg, Sweden).
Rank Name Nation Total points SP FS
1 Jeffrey Buttle Canada 245.17 1 82.10 1 163.07
2 Brian Joubert France 231.22 6 77.75 2 153.47
3 Johnny Weir United States 221.84 2 80.79 5 141.05
4 Daisuke Takahashi Japan 220.11 3 80.40 6 139.71 [高橋 大輔]
5 Stéphane Lambiel Switzerland 217.88 5 79.12 7 138.76
6 Kevin van der Perren Belgium 216.02 9 70.24 3 145.78
7 Sergei Voronov Russia 209.93 15 65.26 4 144.67
8 Takahiko Kozuka Japan 205.15 8 70.91 8 134.24 [小塚 崇彦]
9 Patrick Chan Canada 203.55 7 72.81 11 130.74
10 Stephen Carriere United States 201.69 11 68.20 9 133.49
11 Jeremy Abbott United States 197.26 14 65.61 10 131.65
12 Sergei Davydov Belarus 196.79 12 68.19 12 128.60
13 Adrian Schultheiss Sweden 194.39 13 66.45 13 127.94
14 Kristoffer Berntsson Sweden 193.72 10 69.02 15 124.70
15 Tomáš Verner Czech Republic 191.94 4 79.87 20 112.07
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[AP extract] Buttle's world gold comes without quad; Weir takes bronze
Mar 23, 2008, 03:35 AM
GOTEBORG, Sweden -- Jeffrey Buttle won the world title and set off a debate.
No, this isn't skating's latest controversial victory. Buttle was brilliant in adding the men's title at the World Figure Skating Championships to the 2006 Torino bronze medal he already owns, with a program that was the perfect blend of artistry and athleticism. His footwork was whimsical and his spins thrilling. But he had no quadruple jump -- while all the other top contenders at least tried.
Buttle's gold disproves -- this time, at least -- the notion that a man has to do a quad to win the big titles.
"I started skating because I watched Kurt Browning and Brian Orser and it was about the program. And the most memorable programs in skating, you remember the program and you don't remember what elements they did," said Buttle, the first Canadian since Elvis Stojko to win the world title since 1997.
"I went out there and left everything on the ice. I had my heart on my sleeve."
Now he has a gold medal around his neck.
Buttle's score of 245.17 put him well ahead of defending champion Brian Joubert (231.22) and American Johnny Weir (221.84), who won his first world medal and kept the Americans from going home empty for the first time since 1994.
"That makes me feel incredible," Weir said. "I feel great. I am happy to give the United States its only medal."
Weir's finish means the U.S. will be able to send three men to next year's all-important world championships, where results determine slots for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
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Some, like Joubert and U.S. champion Evan Lysacek, say the quad is an essential part of men's skating. Joubert, who has done three quads in a program, complained to French television when he came off the ice that quads were undervalued in the current scoring system and their value should be raised.
"Right after the results, I was very disappointed," Joubert said. "And I am still disappointed because Jeffrey did the perfect competition, he made no mistakes, but he didn't try the quad jump."
Others, like Buttle and Weir, say the quad is an important element, but it is only one element in a long list of what makes a great performance.
"I was fortunate to skate a clean program today. I concentrated very hard to do that, but it is not just the jumps. We work whole sessions on spins and stroking and all those things in between because that is figure skating," Buttle said, sitting serenely next to Joubert.
"It's everything that happens in those four and a half minutes. It's not just about the jumps and ... those in-betweens don't mean anything at all."
Indeed, the quadless Buttle earned the highest technical marks with eight triple jumps, while all the men behind him tried quads -- to one degree of success or another. Joubert opened his program with a big one, while Weir two-footed his. Japan's Daisuke Takahashi and former world champ Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland each tried two, landing only one of them successfully. They finished fourth and fifth.
"I think it is a very strong statement that my sport is not defined by one jump ... and not defined by one element," Weir said. "It's a whole package that you have to have to be a top-level skater. You need to have everything."
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"I was so nervous and so scared. ... I didn't want anything to go wrong," Weir said. "I think you could see that in the performance because I was very tentative. I didn't perform as I usually do. I was focused on one element and the next. It's the kind of performance I don't remember everything I did."
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