Winter Olympics 2014: 5 Things You Need to Know About Evgeni Plushenko

Feb. 13, 2014— -- intro: Evgeni Plushenko's quest for another Olympic gold ended today when he withdrew from the men's individual event after struggling with an injury.

As one of Russia's most adored athletes, he took the ice last weekend for the team competition.

Plushenko drew his finger to his lips to hush the home country crowd, which included Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Predictably, the arena went wild. When Plushenko, 31, finished skating, he stood at the center of the ice lapping up the adoration.

Love him or hate him, there's no denying it: the Russian figure skater is a showman and one of the best men's skaters to ever grace the ice at the games.

Here's are five things you need to know about him.

quicklist: 1title: He Had Major Surgery in 2013text: Plushenko's stellar performance on Sunday would have been impossible at this time last year after he underwent surgery to replace a disk in his spine with an artificial one.

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quicklist: 2title: Plushenko Has Four Olympic Medalstext: Russia's team gold in Sochi is Plushenko's fourth Olympic medal. He has one other gold and two silver.

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quicklist: 3title: That Famous Tantrumtext: It turns out Plushenko wasn't too pleased about losing out on gold to Evan Lysacek at the 2010 Vancouver games.

"If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad, I don't know," Plushenko said at the time, according to ESPN, referring to a quadruple jump. "Now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing."

On Plushenko's website, he later reportedly displayed a mocked-up platinum medal next to the gold he won in Torino in 2006.

Plushenko's website adds that he has only ever finished off the podium once in his career.

quicklist: 4title: Plushenko Has Met His Match ... Off the Icetext: If you think Plushenko is a strong personality, you should meet his wife.

"I am very famous. I am top three in Russian woman," Yana Rudkovskaya, 39, told the Associated Press in Sochi.

Plushenko's music producer wife reportedly has an iPhone case bearing his likeness and has been photographed holding a giant banner of the blonde couple canoodling.

"My heart is with you!" the banner says in large pink letters.

See it here.

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quicklist: 5title: He's Multi-Talentedtext: Plushenko was elected to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in 2007. According to his website, he left politics in January 2011.

His website includes a long list of honors, including being named the "Most Stylish Man in Russia," according to "Hello Magazine."

During the 2008 Eurovision song contest, Plushenko notably danced while Russian singer Dima Bilan sang Russia's entry, "Believe."

Guess who won that year? Russia.

Evgeni Plushenko doesn't like to lose.