Evan Lysacek

Evan Lysacek

Lysacek during his long program at the 2004 Four Continents Championships.
Personal Information
Full name:	Evan Frank Lysacek
Country represented:	United States
Date of birth:	June 4, 1985 (1985-06-04) (age 24)
Place of birth:	Chicago, Illinois
Home town:	Naperville, Illinois
Residence:	Los Angeles, California
Height:	185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Coach:	Frank Carroll
Former coach:	Ken Congemi, Viktor Kudriavtsev, Maria Jezak-Athey
Choreographer:	Tatiana Tarasova, Lori Nichol
Former choreographer:	Kurt Browning, Oleg Epstein
Skating club:	DuPage FSC
ISU Personal Best Scores
Combined Total:	233.11	2008 Four Continents
Short Program:	84.06	2008 Four Continents
Free Skate:	159.23	2007 Four Continents

Evan Frank Lysacek (pronounced [ɛvʌn lyːsaːʧek], ɜvæn l-yesɑchɛk (LIE-sah-chek) born June 4, 1985) is an American figure skater. He is the 2007 & 2008 U.S. National Champion, 2008 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, and a two-time World bronze medalist (2005–2006).

At the end of the 2007–2008 season, Lysacek was ranked 7th in the world.^[1] He was the United States Olympic Committee's Male Athlete of the Month for November 2006.^[2]

Personal life

Lysacek was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Naperville, Illinois. His mother, Tanya, is a substitute teacher in Naperville and his father, Don, is a building contractor. He has an older sister, Laura, and a younger sister, Christina, who plays on a nationally ranked volleyball team.^[3] His cousin Cole Chason is a punter for the Clemson Tigers.^[4] Lysacek graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in 2003. In high school, Lysacek was a member of the honor roll, and earned a number of academic achievement awards, including the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence in 1999.^[3]

Lysacek is Greek Orthodox and has stated that one of his most prized possessions is his Greek Orthodox cross.^[5] He wears Graf figure skating boots.^[6]

Lysacek lives in Los Angeles, California and trains in El Segundo, California at the Toyota Sports Center.

Career

Evan Lysacek began skating at the age of eight. His grandmother had always wanted to be in the Ice Capades, so she bought him skates for Christmas. He originally wanted to play hockey so his mother enrolled him and his sister Laura in figure skating lessons so he would learn how to skate. Lysacek became hooked and was soon competing as a figure skater.

Early career

In 1996, Lysacek won the U.S. national title at the Juvenile level. In 1997, he moved up to Intermediate and won the pewter medal (fourth place) at the Junior Olympics, after winning both his regional and his sectional qualifying competitions.

After failing to qualify for Nationals on the novice level in 1998,^[7] Lysacek won the U.S. Novice title in 1999^[8] at the age of thirteen and then immediately followed it with the U.S. Junior title in 2000^[9] at the age of fourteen, placing fifth in the short program and first in the free skate, placing first overall. He was the first male skater since Terry Kubicka to win back-to-back Novice and Junior Men's titles in the United States.^[10][11] The win on the junior level was unusual in that Lysacek moved from third to first overall while sitting backstage, because he won through a tiebreak in the 6.0 ordinal system.^[12] Lysacek was tied with Parker Pennington in second place ordinals and had one more first place ordinal, giving him the win in the free skate in the Total Ordinals of Majority tiebreaker, which pushed him ahead in overall factored placements, allowing him to win the title overall.^[13]

Lysacek had a strong showing in the 2000–2001 season. He showed promise on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, winning two silver medals and qualifying for the Junior Grand Prix Final. He placed 12th in his senior debut at Nationals, at the age of fifteen. Lysacek was named second alternate to the US team to the 2001 World Junior Figure Skating Championships and was placed on the team after Ryan Bradley^[14][11] withdrew due to injury. Lysacek performed two clean programs and came in second behind fellow American Johnny Weir. This was the first time since 1987 that the United States had won gold and silver on the World Junior podium.^[15][16]

Over the next season, Lysacek dealt with several injuries, including broken ribs, which resulted in lost training time. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States Figure Skating Association cancelled the Junior Grand Prix event to be held in Arizona^[17] and did not allow their junior skaters to compete on the Junior Grand Prix circuit.^[18] Lysacek repeated his 12th place finish at the U.S. Championships and was not selected for the World Junior team.^[11]

After that, Lysacek changed his diet and his training habits.^[11] In the 2002–2003 season, he once again won medals on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, qualified again for the Junior Grand Prix Final, placed in the top ten at the U.S. Championships and competed at the 2003 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, his first senior international competition, and was placed on the 2003 Junior Worlds team. Due to the United States team's performance at the 2002 Junior Worlds, they only had two men's spots. After the withdrawal of Parker Pennington, the higher ranked man on the two man team, Lysacek was the only United States men's skater at the competition. Lysacek landed his first clean triple axel jump of his career in the qualifying round of that competition and his second clean one in the free skate.^[11] His silver medal winning performance earned the United States three spots to the 2004 Junior Worlds.

After graduating from high school in 2003, Lysacek made a coaching change and began to work with Ken Congemi and Frank Carroll in El Segundo, California. With Congemi and Carroll, Lysacek won both of his Junior Grand Prix assignments as well as the Junior Grand Prix Final.^[19] He placed fifth at nationals and was put on the 2004 Four Continents team, where he won the bronze as his first senior-level international medal. Lysacek then went on to the 2004 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where he won a third silver medal.

Senior success

Lysacek during the 2006 Skate America gala.

Lysacek throws Jeffrey Buttle at the 2008 Four Continents gala

In the 2004–2005 season, having aged out of juniors at age 19, Lysacek made his senior international debut. Skating through a hip injury,^[20] Lysacek placed fifth at the 2004 Skate America, his first Grand Prix event of his career. He repeated that placement a few weeks later at Cup of Russia. At the 2005 National Championships, Lysacek won the bronze medal after receiving the only 6.0 of his career for his short program.^[21] He went on to win his first senior international title at the 2005 Four Continents Championships. In Moscow, he won a surprising bronze medal at his first senior World Figure Skating Championships, a competition for which his only goal was to make it out of the qualifying round and into the free skate.^[22][23]

In the 2005–2006 season, Lysacek had a rough start. He placed second at the 2005 Skate America, but it was clear that his Grease free skate was not working. Lysacek and coach Frank Carroll made the decision to find a new long program.^[24] Lyscek's new Carmen program was a success at the 2005 NHK Trophy, where Lysacek placed second. Lysacek was the only American man to qualify for the Grand Prix Final that season. However, he was forced to withdraw from the final because of bursitis and tendinitis in his right hip.^[25] At the 2006 U.S. Championships, Lysacek was third after the short program, but pulled up to win the free skate, finishing second overall and winning the silver medal. He was named to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, along with countrymen Johnny Weir and Matthew Savoie.^[26]

At the Olympics, following a disappointing 10th place finish in the short program, Lysacek became sick with the stomach flu. Unable to practice, he stayed in bed at the Olympic village, receiving fluids from IVs. After considering withdrawing, he decided to skate the next day and went on to skate a career best free skate.^[27] He finished his free skate with eight triple jumps and was ranked third of the night. He finished fourth overall, seven points below the bronze. He commentated on his long program on Olympic Ice the next day with Scott Hamilton and Mary Carillo.^[7]

Lysacek ended his season by finishing third at the 2006 World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary, Alberta. Once again troubled by illness, he captured the bronze medal despite being on three different antibiotics to fight a bacterial infection, which at one point, caused him to cough up blood.^[28] Lysacek was credited with landing his first quadruple jump in competition, a quadruple toe loop.^[28] He pulled himself up from seventh place in the short on the strength of his long program. After Worlds, Lysacek toured with Champions on Ice as a full member of the cast.

In the 2006–2007 season, Lysacek placed second at the 2006 Skate America. Two weeks later, Lysacek won the gold medal at the 2006 Cup of China by a 20-point margin.^[29] He qualified for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final for the second year in a row. However, he withdrew from the competition before he was to skate his short program due to an injury to his hip.^[30]

Lysacek resumed training a few weeks later.^[7] At the 2007 National Championships, he performed his first clean short program all season, then went on to land his first clean quadruple jump in competition, quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop jump, in the long program, to win his first national title.^[31] A week later, Lysacek competed in the ISU Four Continents Championship. He was fourth after the short, but made yet another comeback in the free skate, landing a clean quad combination, to earn a new personal best and to win his second Four Continents title.

At the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, Lysacek made his first attempt at landing a quadruple jump in the short program. He attempted a quad-triple, but stepped out of the quad and put his hand down, and followed it with a double.^[32][33] He placed fifth in the short program and earned himself his first new short program personal best in two years.^[7] In the long program, he completed a quadruple toe-loop, but lost control of the landing, adding a three turn after it, and was unable to complete the quad-triple as intended.^[34] He performed a double loop instead of a planned triple loop^[7] and placed fifth once again in the long program, placing fifth over all.

Lysacek toured over the summer of 2007 with Champions on Ice for the second consecutive summer.

Lysacek began the 2007–2008 season once again at Skate America. He underrotated and fell on an attempted quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop^[35] in the short program, receiving only a score of one point for that element.^[36] He was in second place going into the free skate. He won the free skate,^[37] landing a clean quadruple jump,^[38] but was unable to pull up to first overall, due to Daisuke Takahashi's twelve point lead after the short program.^[39] He went on to the 2007 Cup of China, where he won the short program with a score of 81.55, improving his personal best by almost thirteen points.^[40] He placed second in the free skate after falling on his quad, placing second overall to Johnny Weir.^[41] This qualified him for the 2007–2008 Grand Prix Final. At the Final, Lysacek was credited with a quadruple jump in both his programs^[42][43] and won the bronze medal overall, after placing third in both segments of the competition.^[44] He earned a new overall personal best of 229.78 points. At the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Lysacek was second after the short program and won the free skate. Although he tied with Johnny Weir on the overall score, Lysacek won the title on the tiebreaker.

At the 2008 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, Lysacek placed second in the short program and third in the free skate, placing third overall. Lysacek was on the US team for the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships and considered one of the favorites for a medal going into the event. However, he was forced to withdraw the week before the event due to an injury sustained while landing a triple axel. The blade broke off of his boot and he injured the left side of his body, from his forearm to his shoulder, and required a cast.^[45]

Lysacek toured over the summer of 2008 with the Stars on Ice tour.

He competed at 2008 Skate America and 2008 Skate Canada International in the 2008–2009 Grand Prix series, and won the bronze medal at both.^[46]

Coaching changes

Lysacek with coach Frank Carroll at the 2007–2008 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. He won the bronze medal at this event. Lysacek has been coached by Carroll since June, 2003.

Evan Lysacek was originally coached by Candice Brown in Naperville.^[47] After that, he worked with Deborah Stoery in Naperville, Illinois and Addison, Illinois for three years. For the next two years, he had an arrangement where he would train under both Addison-based Maria Jezak-Athey and Moscow-based Viktor Kudriavtsev. Kudriavtsev would come to Chicago for part of the year to coach, and Lysacek spent his summers at Kudriavtsev's summer training camps in Moscow, Russia and Flims, Switzerland. When that arrangement proved untenable, Kudriavtsev recommended Lysacek to Carroll, who agreed to coach Lysacek on the condition that Lysacek would work more with Congemi than with himself, due to Carroll's commitments to Timothy Goebel.^[22][11] Lysacek moved to El Segundo, California to work with Frank Carroll and Ken Congemi in June 2003. Lysacek worked with both Congemi and Carroll through the 2006/2007 season, after which he began working solely with Carroll.

Lysacek has worked with many choreographers over the years, including Oleg Epstein^[47][7] and Kurt Browning. Both his programs for the 2007–2008 season were choreographed by Lori Nichol.^[7] He worked with Tatiana Tarasova on his programs for the 2008–2009 season.^[48]

Off the ice

Lysacek studies acting on his own^[49] and has also taken method acting classes at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills^[7] He appeared in the independent short film Skate Great!, playing a Russian Olympic gold medalist.^[50] Lysacek uses power yoga as conditioning training.^[51]

Lysacek supports a number of charities. He participated in Target - A Time for Heroes, a celebrity charity event benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.^[52] He also supports the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Jimmy Fund).^[3]

Programs

Competitive highlights

Post-2004

• WD = Withdrew

Pre-2004

• N = Novice level; J = Junior level; WD = Withdrew

References

External links

• Official site
• Evan Lysacek at the United States Figure Skating Association
• Evan Lysacek at the International Skating Union
• Evan Lysacek at the Internet Movie Database
• Evan Lysacek at the United States Olympic Committee.
• Evan Lysacek - Fansite by Megi