Olympic Men's Figure Skating medal winners

Men's figure skating seems to be one of the more popular, and controversial, of the Olympic winter sports, at least from where I'm sitting in Canada. It's been around longer than the Olympic Winter Games themselves, having first been included on the program at the 1908 games in London, since it can be done indoors.

Women like this sport. They like to watch it for the grace and elegance of the skaters. Plus some of them are hotties.

Not nearly as many guys will watch men's figure skating. At least not willingly. Yes yes, I know guys watch the sport. Just not as MANY. And some do only watch it because their SO makes them. It's how they get away with watching the hockey game.

It's controversial because it's an event where success is determined by a panel of judges, as opposed to most other sports where success is quantitative. It's hard to argue that you should have won when the other person was faster than you, or the other team scored more goals. It's a bit easier to say "the judges were biased."

Medal totals     Gold   Silver  Bronze 
United States      6       3       5
Russia             4       3       1 
Sweden             4       2       1
Austria            3       3       2
Canada             0       4       3
Germany            1       2       0
Great Britain      2       0       0
Czechoslovakia     1       1       1
France             0       1       4
Norway             0       1       2
Switzerland        0       1       1
Belgium            0       0       1

• Salt Lake City, United States. 2002
  • Russia Alexei Yagudin - Gold
  • Russia Evgeni Plushenko - Silver
  • United States Timothy Goebel - Bronze