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 past 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.
Stephen Carriere, last year’s world junior champion, was third with 228.06 points.
Weir has no reason to hang his head over 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 move to New Jersey. He now trains with Galina Zmiev-skaya, 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.
