TURIN, Italy — The Olympic gold medal and everything that went into winning it felt so good to Evgeni Plushenko that he wants to do it again.

That leaves the rest of the world's top figure skaters in big trouble. The gap between the Russian star and the other medalists is as wide as the distance between Turin and Vancouver, where the 2010 Winter Games will take place.

"I think about the next Olympics now," he said after extending the Russia/Soviet men's figure skating gold medal streak to five games. "I am only 23, and in four years I will be only 27. It's a good age for a skater.

"I love skating, I love winning, it's my life."

Life has been very good for the three-time world champion. So good that he didn't need one of those take-your-breath-away performances to add gold to the silver medal he won four years ago.

Plushenko beat world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland by an unfathomable 27.12 points. Canada's Jeff Buttle won the bronze, with Americans Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir next. Matt Savoie, the other U.S. skater, was seventh.

None of them approached Plushenko's level. They now have four years to get there.

They might need every minute of it.

"There are years between Plushenko and everybody else," said Weir, who will stick around to chase the Russian. "If you look at the top six after the short program, we've all come about after Plushenko. ... Plushenko has been competing in Grand Prix events since I started skating."

Plushenko has been a force in figure skating for eight years and had a sometimes-bitter rivalry with former training partner Alexei Yagudin, the 2002 Olympic winner. When Yagudin left the sport, Plushenko grabbed nearly every championship available.

But it was all in pursuit of this championship.

"It was my dream when I was 4," he said. "I saw a competition and said to my mum, 'I have to be there.' I said that I wanted to be an Olympic champion. Now I have all the titles and I am really very happy."

The first competitor in the final group, Plushenko skated cautiously. At times, he was so slow he looked as if he needed a push to get across the ice, and he lacked his usual flair.

So what.

Skating to "The Godfather," he opened with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe-double loop combination, followed with a triple axel-double toe, and it was over right there.

He was far too good for the rest of this field, finishing with a score of 167.67 points in the free skate and 258.33 overall.

The five remaining skaters knew the gold no longer was attainable — and none of them made a definitive grab for the silver and bronze.

Lambiel and Buttle were more survivors, especially after Weir imploded.

"I was off, it was an off night," said the 21-year-old Weir. "But I will be back in four years, hopefully for a medal."

Weir two-footed a triple axel, had a shaky landing on a triple lutz, did a sloppy triple flip and spun as if he didn't really want to turn. With only one combination jump, his medal chances flew away and he ended up sixth in the free skate.

He even stormed out of the rink when his mediocre marks were shown, the end of a miserable night that he says began with, of all things, transportation problems.

"I missed the bus. They changed the schedule," Weir said. "It was every 10 minutes. Today it was every half-hour. I was late getting here and never caught up. I never felt comfortable in this building. I didn't feel my inner peace. I didn't feel my aura."

His collapse allowed Lysacek to soar past Weir, from 10th to fourth.

The runner-up to Weir at nationals when Lysacek won the free skate, he packed his "Carmen" routine with emotion and motion — hitting all eight of his triple jumps, three in combinations, and spinning precisely and quickly.

Amazing considering he has a stomach flu and was bedridden Wednesday.

"This is not really my ideal Olympic dream," he said.

"If I can take something from this competition, it's a sense of pride at going out and finishing what I started."

Now it's the Russians' turn to complete their set of golds. They have taken both titles from this competition — Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin won the pairs — and are favored in the women's and dance events.

No country has swept the golds at an Olympics.