Figure Skating

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Okay, so world champion Evan Lysacek won the men's event at Skate America for the first time in five tries on Saturday night. Got a standing ovation. Felt the history of the Olympics in a special building.

But the real victory went to Canadian Shawn Sawyer of Edmundston, N.B., who won the silver medal with an inspired and elegant performance, the one he's always been waiting for.

When Sawyer finished his free skate to the soundtrack from Amadeus, his coach, Annie Barabe, wiped a tear from her eye. And Sawyer doubled forward, slapped his thighs, and looked ecstatic.

It's the right time for Sawyer to excel. He wants one of only two berths for Canadian men at the Olympics in Vancouver. He says his whole career has been focused on that goal. He still has to qualify through the Canadian championships in January, but the feel of a top effort sets up the 24-year-old perfectly for the rest of his season.

In Skate Canada's Olympic criteria, an athlete goes to the front of the line if he or she attains a score that is projected to make a top-10 finish in a Grand Prix event. For the men, the score is 205. On Saturday, Sawyer fell two points short.

But no matter. His total of 203.91 falls just short of his previous best of 206.56 points, which he set when shocking everybody by winning the long program at Skate Canada in Ottawa last year.

Sawyer said 90 per cent of the decision about who to send to the Olympics will probably be made at the national championships.

"Skate Canada, I'm sure, is looking for who is going to step up to the plate.'' Sawyer said. "There's Patrick Chan. He's very strong, very well trained. He didn't do his first Grand Prix, but it's still early in the season and he's pretty much guaranteed. But we have five other guys fighting for one spot.''

Canada gets only two spots for men at the Olympics. And among the five Olympic wannabees, Sawyer said none has shown a strong first Grand Prix. He finished eighth at Cup of Russia and would rather forget it.

"I think I've made the biggest comeback for men so far,'' he said. "I wanted to make a statement. I want to be back on the world stage, and hopefully I will.''

Sawyer finished 12th at the 2006 Olympics.

There's no doubt that Sawyer is aiming for Vancouver, and it's a dream that started six years ago.

"I'm from a very small town [population 15,000] where whenever you do a provincial competition, you're a big guy,'' Sawyer said. "So the Olympics were a little bit far fetched.

"I made the 2006 Olympic team but that was not my first goal in skating. My goal has always been 2010 Olympics. I remember the date that they announced that it would be in Vancouver. I was training in Ottawa. I was a teenager. I was a little bit in my weird phase. You know how teenagers get weird sometimes."

But the Olympic announcement gave Sawyer a goal and a purpose and he changed his ways.

"At that point I made changes in my life to attain that goal. I'm very proud of myself for 2006, but my real goal of my whole career has always been 2010 in my home country.''

Barabe has coached Sawyer for six years and she's waited a long time to see the kind of Sawyer that emerged Saturday night. While Sawyer was hesitant and wore a long face when he competed at Cup of Russia, he stepped out onto the 1980 Olympic ice with a smile on his face. And a whole lot of confidence and attack.

"I was very happy.'' Sawyer said. "Sometimes, you have to play a role and pretend you're happy. But today I wasn't playing a role. I was truly happy from the bottom of my heart."

He skated with passion and even though he turned out of a triple Axel - a jump that is his nemesis - and put a hand down on a double Axel combination, the quality of his work was high. When he finished his unusual final spin, with his leg impossibly stretched up by his head, the crowd began to scream.

"It feels good because you feel in control,'' Sawyer said. "I felt very confident. I felt power. I know you can be overpowered, but I felt in power. I felt everything could go smooth, I added a couple of movements, a couple of things for the audience. I was having fun. I'm a little bit creative sometimes.''

Barabe said it's been really rare over the past few years to see Sawyer come off the ice with a smile. He's often done performances that he regretted. "Under pressure, it was always difficult,'' she said.

Sometimes, she said, he'll rush his program. But not on Saturday night. He skated like he does at home in practice, under no pressure.

That's the moment she's been waiting to happen for six years.

Sawyer actually finished fourth in the long program, behind Lysacek, Ryan Bradley of the United States, who delivered a crowd-pleasing comic version of Amadeus, and Tomáš Verner of Czech Republic, who had to try to make amends for a dismal short program, that landed him only in 11th place. Overall Verner finished fifth.

Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C. finished sixth with 190.23, admitting that he felt tired toward the end of his program.

He landed a quad Salchow, but when he missed his quadruple toe loop combination, (it turned into a double toe loop), he added in extra jumps later in the program. Reynolds earned the second highest technical mark of the competition: 72.28 points to Lysacek's 77.65. Sawyer's technical marks ranked fourth.

Although Bradley landed two quads for the first time, he had the third highest technical mark.

Sawyer was ranked third best in program components or presentation.