"I am normal people like you, I am not robot.”

From any other Olympic athlete, this sentiment would’ve been a throwaway line about the fallibility of the human body. But for Russia figure skating superstar Evgeni Plushenko, it was more like gallows humor. After 12 back surgeries that eventually required 50,000 tiny bolts to be inserted into his spine, the jokes about him being the $6 Million Man were probably beginning to wear thin.

The good (OK, not remotely good) news is that he’ll now be able to put all the cyborg rumors to rest by broadcasting his next surgical operation live online.