Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko pulled out of the Olympic race citing back injuries as the reason on Feb. 13.

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The 31-year old faltered while performing at the Winter Shorts program in Sochi on Thursday, causing him to exit the rink as a stumped audience silently looked on.

The Olympic gold medalist also announced his retirement shortly after the incident.

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Plushenko had already been showing signs of not being in good form during the warm up practices, failing to execute his jumps properly. Plushenko's wife and manager, Yana Rudkovskaya, said that the figure skater could not even take painkillers as that would disable his legs. Plushenko has had 13 surgeries, many of which have been to rectify issues with his knees and the most recent one was an intesive back operation.

Plushenko won his first Olympic medal in 2002. He went on to win a silver medal in 2010, a gold medal in 2006 and a Olympic team gold medal this year.

There had been a lot of controversy surrounding Russia's decision to go with Plushenko, knowing fully well that he was in pretty bad condition, and having the option to send promising new talent, Maxim Kovtun. The 18-year-old had won Russia's national championship, though Plushenko did not take part in the event.

Even as Russian sports enthusiasts were championing Plushenko as he braved his injuries to take part in the event, they were also confused about the choice to send Plushenko to represent Russia in this year's Olympics. Plushenko is considered to be old as in the figure-skating realm, athelets bow out pretty early.

Watch the clip of Plushenko at the Winter Shorts: