On Thursday afternoon, NBCOlympics.com caught some of the U.S. men’s free skate practice. Self-acclaimed Russia-phile Johnny Weir warmed up in a retro-style Soviet Union jacket and then practiced in a costume that had his name, written in Cyrillic, down his sleeve. Weir did a sparse run-through of his “Otonal” long program, only skating certain sections of it while his music played. When he was skating, he looked sharp: His final combination spin looked faster than it has in the past, and his straight-line footwork sequence was fluid and crisp as always.

But it was before his run-through that Weir really caught the eye of the few media members in attendance. Weir was practicing a quadruple toe loop — a jump he’s never attempted in major competition — as part of a three-jump combination, and his attempts were impressive. The first time, he did a quad toe-triple toe-double toe, and fully rotated (but two-footed) the quad. On his next attempt at that jumping pass, Weir did a quad toe-triple toe-triple toe, and all jumps were landed cleanly. Only Russia’s Yevgeny Plushenko has landed a quad-triple-triple in competition — his was a quad toe-triple toe-triple loop.

After practice, Weir said he probably won’t go for such an ambitious combination in his free skate, and is undecided on whether to include a quad at all. His countryman Evan Lysacek , on the other hand, still plans to do the quad in both of his programs, though he sounded slightly less committed to the idea than he had on Tuesday. Lysacek had a fall on one quad attempt Thursday and landed another one (two-footed), but looked polished in the run-through of his “Carmen” long program.