Back flips were never legal in Olympic or World competition. ;) Most likely you were watching some sort of exhibition.
That being said, I actually prefer the artistry. I just wish they'd stop with all those catch-foot moves, which don't look all that great on the ice. It was especially noticeable in the Pairs' competition, and those routines' spiral sequences were all definitely cookie cutter copies of each other. The Men, at least, had a little bit of variety in their footwork sections. In the short program you're only allowed to do four jumps: a combination (most do triple-triple), a triple/double axel and a single triple jump. The idea is to space the jumps out so that they're more spread out, but hardly anyone does that (it's called "front loading" and Plushenko is the worst culprit of this) because it's harder. That's why bonus points are handed out for the people who *do* do this; every jump that happens after the half-way point in the long program earns a bonus point, which, assuming that Plushenko again front loads his program, is the way that Evan and/or Takahashi can defeat him even without quads.
That being said, I actually prefer the artistry. I just wish they'd stop with all those catch-foot moves, which don't look all that great on the ice. It was especially noticeable in the Pairs' competition, and those routines' spiral sequences were all definitely cookie cutter copies of each other. The Men, at least, had a little bit of variety in their footwork sections. In the short program you're only allowed to do four jumps: a combination (most do triple-triple), a triple/double axel and a single triple jump. The idea is to space the jumps out so that they're more spread out, but hardly anyone does that (it's called "front loading" and Plushenko is the worst culprit of this) because it's harder. That's why bonus points are handed out for the people who *do* do this; every jump that happens after the half-way point in the long program earns a bonus point, which, assuming that Plushenko again front loads his program, is the way that Evan and/or Takahashi can defeat him even without quads.
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