TORINO, Italy — Jeff Buttle's chances of winning an Olympic figure skating medal have all but vanished.

The Canadian champion made two significant mistakes in his short program Tuesday and was so far behind the leaders that his chances of being on the podium after the free-skating final Thursday now are minuscule.

"I'm not even going to think about medals,'' he replied when asked if his chance was gone. "The medal's been too big a question.

"It's not the medal itself that I was looking for. That was my problem when I got here -- I started thinking about the medal, and I didn't want to do that. I don't really give a crap about the result right now. I just want to focus on my skating, and I want it to be better than it was tonight.'

Buttle's routine during his two minutes 40 seconds on the ice was to Luis Prima's Sing, Sing, Sing.

He opened with a good triple flip-triple toeloop combo. The required triple Axel was next, and he didn't get around enough on the third revolution and messed up his landing. He crashed to the ice.

He followed with a flying sit spin, a circular step sequence and a change foot sit spin. He landed a triple Lutz, but was shaky on the landing and had to put a hand to the ice for balance. He finished with crisp footwork and another top-notch spin.

The judges gave him 73.29 points -- well below his personal best of 77.39.

Leader Evgeni Plushenko, the three-time world champion from Russia, was awarded 90.66, which was a personal best.

High expectations had been heaped on Buttle since he won silver at the 2005 world championship, and because of his consistently good performances. In his previous 14 competitions, he reached the podium every time in winning six gold, six silver and two bronze medals.

So, he's long ago learned how to handle the pressures of big-time competition. Yet, these are the Olympics, which is another step up, and this was the first Winter Games appearance for the 23-year-old native of Smooth Rock Falls, Ont.

"I'm obviously getting more pressure than I'm used to, but that's something I should be able to handle,'' he said. "More than anything was the pressure that I was putting on myself.''

Practices hadn't been going well, he said.

"I just didn't seem to be able to get into a zone,'' he said. "But practice (early Tuesday) went really well. I seemed to have turn it around.''

Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., was to skate later.

Shawn Sawyer of Edmunston, N.B., got a personal-best 67.20 points. His only significant mistake was a wobbly triple Axel landing.

Buttle had a good warmup.

"I went out there with the intention of giving my everything and having fun,'' he said. "I definitely felt relaxed -- too relaxed, I think.

"I let jumps get away that shouldn't have. The Axel went up really good but I didn't have snap and attack on the landing. The Lutz was the same thing.

"I made mistakes and I had a ball out there. It's too bad about the mistakes, but I'll learn from that and improve.''

He mouthed "sorry'' to TV cameras as he awaited his marks with disappointment etched all over his face.

"This morning I sort of found where I was, but it just didn't happen tonight,'' he said later. "It's a crying shame.

"You lose focus for a millisecond and mistakes are made, but we train so that we're able to maintain our focus and it's hard for everyone out there and not just for me. I don't want to make excuses.''

It was tough for him to accept because he'd skated the short program so well all season.

Plushenko won silver at the 2002 Olympics. The way he's skating now, only a monumental upset will deprive him of gold.

"Plushenko definitely has the best goods out there, certainly technically,'' said Buttle. "It's his title to give up.''

Sawyer was well back in the standings because the level of difficulty and overall quality of his skating is deemed by the judges to be lesser than that of the top skaters.

"I'm very happy with it,'' he said of his short program.

He had to skate right after Plushenko.

"I knew he was going to skate clean and the audience was going to be on its feet,'' said Sawyer. "I felt comfortable with that.

"It didn't really bother me because I was expecting it. Things went really well. I stayed focused all the way through.''

All he needs is top-flight experience, and he's getting it this week.

"It's the biggest competition I've ever done,'' he said. "I've never done a world championship, and here I am at the Olympics, and this was a personal best. I'm very, very thrilled with that.''