Figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's singles
| Men's singles at the XX Olympic Winter Games
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Figure skating pictogram
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| Venue |
Palavela Turin, Italy |
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| Dates | February 14, 2006 February 16, 2006 |
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| Competitors | 30 from 22 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning score | 258.33 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Evgeni Plushenko |
 Russia
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Stéphane Lambiel |
 Switzerland
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Jeffrey Buttle |
 Canada
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Men's single skating was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
This individual event was structured in a similar manner to the pairs event, with a short program and a free skating. 30 skaters entered the short program, but only the top 24 competitors continued to the free skating.
The 2002 Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin from Russia did not defend his title because he announced retirement in 2003. On the other hand, reigning World Champion Stéphane Lambiel from Switzerland did compete.
The clear favorite before the competition was three-time world champion Evgeni Plushenko, who withdrew from the 2005 World Championships due to injury. Reigning world champion Stéphane Lambiel was considered Plushenko's main competition for the gold. Other notable competitors coming into the event included Canadians Jeffrey Buttle (the reigning world silver medalist) and Emanuel Sandhu, France's Brian Joubert, Japan's Daisuke Takahashi, and the strong American team of Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek (reigning world bronze medalist), and Matt Savoie.
The men's short program took place on February 14. Plushenko took the early lead after the short program. He set a new personal best (also the world record) score with a massive 90.66 points, over 10 points ahead of Weir, who finished in second with 80.00 points. Lambiel doubled his planned triple Axel but still ended up in third place with a score of 79.04 points, less than a point behind Weir. Joubert was fourth in the short program with 77.77 points, followed by Takahashi and Buttle with 73.77 and 73.29 points respectively. Buttle and fellow Canadian Sandhu, who ranked seventh, both had trouble with their jumps, but their high program component scores kept them in contention for medals. Savoie had a solid skate to finish eighth, while teammate Lysacek fell on his triple Axel and doubled his triple flip to finish a disappointing tenth in this phase of the competition.
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