Olympics-Figure skating-No quad means back to dark ages - Mishin

VANCOUVER Feb 13 (Reuters) - Winning the Olympic gold medal without performing a quadruple jump is like going back to the dark ages of men's figure skating, Yevgeny Plushenko's coach said on Saturday.

In the build-up to the Vancouver Gamess, a raging debate about the importance of the quad has broken out and split Europe and North America.

Russian Plushenko and former world champion Brian Joubert of France have been critical of the fact that the last two world titles were won by North Americans who did not attempt the dizzying jump in which at least four rotations must be completed through the air.

"Modern figure skating without the quad is going back to the time before (Elvis) Stojko and (Alexei) Urmanov (who competed in the 1990s)," Plushenko's famed coach Alexei Mishin told reporters on Saturday as the Olympic champion's camp finally broke their silence in Vancouver.

"If you look at the Olympic motto 'faster, higher, stronger', the quad represents exactly that," added the Russian, who has mentored three of the last four men's Olympic gold medallists.

However, American Evan Lysacek was adamant that it was possible to exploit the new accumulative points scoring system by putting in spins and step sequences to compensate for the lack of quad, just as he did to capture the 2009 world title.

"A positive grade of execution can make up for a quad. This is going to be my strategy. I looked back at the score sheets (last year), saw where I gained points and saw they were more valuable than the quad," he said.

"For me the quad is a risk. Saying 'is this going to be the one that breaks my foot again?' I didn't want that to be my Olympic experience."

THUMBS DOWN

While some of the front-runners, or their coaches, were ready to shout out their arguments about the quad from their soapbox, Joubert chose to ignore the furore and gave the Olympic rink at the Pacific Coliseum the thumbs down.

"The rink is not so impressive. I don't feel like I'm at the Olympics Games. I almost feel like I'm at a training camp," said the Frenchman after his first outing in the arena on Saturday.

"It is hot on the ice and that is tiring."

Plushenko followed Joubert on to the ice but again refused to speak to reporters, leaving Mishin to declare that his charge was preparing to be "like a flower bouquet that looks fresh on the day of the competition." (Editing by Ed Osmond; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)