Evan Lysacek—Back to Reclaim His National Title
Come January, Evan Lysacek is back in Spokane to reclaim his national title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships after losing out to Jeremy Weir in 2009, placing third following two consecutive years of winning the gold.
It seems bronze medals were in the cards for Evan for the 2008-2009 season, beginning with 2008 Skate America. The following week, he competed at the 2008 Skate Canada International, where he won a second bronze medal. Then at the 2009 United States Figure Skating Championships, Lysacek earned the bronze yet again, placing just 0.60 points behind silver medalist Brandon Mroz. Due to this close placement at the U.S. Championships though, Lysacek fortunately secured his place on the 2009 Four Continents Championships and the 2009 World Championships.
At the Four Continents, Evan seemed to hit his stride once again, when he took the silver medal, followed with the gold at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships, which he skated with a stress fracture, becoming the first American man since Todd Eldredge in 1996 to win the World title. His placement, combined with that of Brandon Mroz, qualified the United States for three entries in the men's event at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Then at the 2009 Cup of China, he got bumped to silver once again before going on to 2009 Skate America, where he won both segments of the competition and won the gold medal overall in his sixth time competing at Skate America. Next came the Grand Prix Final, where he placed second in the short program and won the free skating to take the gold, becoming only the second consecutive American to win the title, following Jeremy Abbott's win the year before.
Now he is preparing to take to the ice in Spokane once again, which he is thoroughly looking forward to.
"The fans were absolutely incredible in Spokane,” said the reigning two-time U.S. champion. “Everywhere we went, people were talking about skating—we felt like rock stars."
Growing up outside Chicago, Illinois, in the town of Naperville, 24 year-old Evan Lysacek began skating at the age of 8 with dreams of becoming a hockey player. His grandmother had always wanted to be in the Ice Capades, so she bought him skates for Christmas. However, to learn how to skate, his mother enrolled him and his sister Laura in figure skating lessons and soon Evan was competing as a figure skater.
It seems the competitive spirit runs in the family as younger sister played on a nationally ranked volleyball team and his cousin, Cole Chason, is a punter for the Clemson Tigers.
Lysacek graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in 2003, where he was a member of the honor roll, and earned a number of academic achievement awards, including the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence in 1999. Upon graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, California to train at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.
In addition to skating, Lysacek studies acting at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills and has already appeared in the short independent film Skate Great!, playing a Russian Olympic gold medalist.
He supports a number of charities, including Target—A Time for Heroes, a celebrity charity event benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Jimmy Fund), and Figure Skating in Harlem.
He is also a spokesperson for Total Gym. His sponsors following his win at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships include Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Ralph Lauren.
Lysacek is currently being coached by Frank Carroll, who also coaches Mirai Nagasu, whom he has trained with since June, 2003.