Ralf Wiegand - February the 15th 2002 Figure Skating Olympic Champion Yagudin portrayed his own life during the Free Program - a story of disdained love and bitter revenge Paris, 1638. Queen Anne gives France a heirs to the throne, but - as only a few know - in this fateful night a second boy is born. The twin is kept secret from the public and his face is locked into an iron mask, so that his brother, Louis XIV, can ascend to the throne and lead the country into tyranny unhindered. But after many years the man in the iron mask is freed and returns to capture the throne. (Freely after "The Man in the Iron Mask" from Alexandre Dumas). Salt Lake City, 2002. Alexei Mishin, a 60 year old man with a face made of wax, has the passion to turn boys into Champions. Kings on Ice. Evgeny Plushenko was the next one the king-maker had chosen to reign the cold empire on blades. The accession to the throne should happen here, on the Olympic and in front of the eyes of the world. But it happened that the lost twin returned in time. Freed by a mightful woman with billowing bosom and trepidant voice, the sorceress Tatiana Tarasova, Alexei Yagudin floated over the ice, pulling a trail made of stars behind him. The people had their true ruler back and were at his feet. (Freely after: Men's figure skating free skate at the Olympic Games 2002) What is fiction, what is truth? What is staging, what fate? The boundaries become blurred in figure skating, but what the world can expect since Thursday evening is a confrontation of coldness and passion, that could last a decade or a life. As young as they are, the Olympic Champion Alexei Yagudin, 21, and the silver medallist Evgeny Plushenko, 19, they already have a mutual story as thick as a screenplay. People will be crazy for it. Plushenko learns to spin. The ice was melting under his skate blades, when Alexei Yagudin was interpreting the story of the man in the iron mask for his Olympic free skate, because he considers it his own story. Yagudin and Plushenko once used to be students of the same teacher, the very Alexei Mishin. Before that, Yagudin trained with Alexander Majorow, who he loved like a father. He taught him how to skate, his mother told him the rules: If he wasn't jumping well during practice, the tv was disabled. But one day Majorow went to Sweden. At home the rinks were rotting, elsewhere one could make money. But Majorow didn't just leave his studend behind. He recommended him to the strict Mr. Mishin, whos student he himself once used to be. Alexei Yagudin was 10 years old when he moved to Mishin in St. Petersburg. It was the year 1990. At another time in Sibiria it happened that a doctor recommended to the mother Tatiana Plushenko, to send her 4-year old son Evgeny to figure skate, because a chronical cold was beginning to show. Looking for a better climate, the family moved to Wolgograd, where little Evgeny actually skated. Mrs. Plushenko liked it and every evening she stretched the legs of her boy until it hurt, because she wanted him to lern the Biellman spin.