Evgeni Plushenko finished off what he started two days ago, and helped restore some Russian pride after the country became embroiled in the first doping scandal at the Turin Olympics.
Plushenko's flawless performance in the short program gave him an almost unbeatable lead going into the free skate on Thursday. He easily won the gold medal, just hours after fellow Russian and biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver.
Pyleva returned a positive test to a banned stimulant and was expelled from the games while her rivals were lining up to start the 7.5km sprint. She also lost the medal she won while finishing second Monday in the 15km race.
Russian officials claimed Pyleva was the unwitting victim of an error by a doctor who gave her an over-the-counter medication that contained the banned stimulant carphedon, but didn't list it on the package.
"It's a shocking situation," Pyleva told Russian TV, "because I've always been against using banned medications."
Plushenko opened his free skate program with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe-double loop combination, followed with a triple axel-double toe.
A touch of overkill, perhaps, but the three-time world champion said he desperately wanted the Olympic gold medal to complete his collection of titles.
"It was my dream when I was 4," said Plushenko, who extended Russia's streak to five consecutive titles in the men's event. "I saw a competition and said to my mom, `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."
Plushenko, the silver medalist four years ago in Salt Lake City, had 258.33 points overall -- an incredible 27.12 points in front of Swiss world champion and silver medalist Stephane Lambiel. Canada's Jeff Buttle was third.
In the Italian Alps, Estonia's Kristina Smigun won her second gold of the week and Seth Wescott won the inaugural snowboardcross event, making the US 3-for-3 in snowboard finals this week.
The Italian men's speedskating pursuit team claimed an against-the-odds win for the host nation, beating the US, Netherlands and Canada along the way. The women's pursuit had a far more predictable winner -- powerhouse Germany.
With Pyleva out of the women's 7.5km biathlon sprint, Florence Baverel-Robert of France was a surprise winner.
Maya Pedersen, who hung up her sled to become a mother two years ago, won the gold in skeleton for Switzerland -- the Alpine country's first of the Turin Games.
Pyleva was scratched from the field before the start of the biathlon 7.5km sprint, in which she was considered a leading medal contender. She also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
A three-member IOC panel found Pyleva guilty of a doping violation. She tested positive for carphedon in a urine test following Monday's race.
Nikolai Durmanov, head of the Russian Anti-Doping Committee, said a doctor who treated her for an ankle injury in January gave Pyleva an over-the-counter medication that did not list carphedon as one of its ingredients.
"It's a bad thing that somebody is testing positive, but it's a good thing we got her," said World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound.
The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the IOC's most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics.
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