Evan Lysacek
Evan Lysacek Frank ( born June 4, 1985 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American figure skater. He is the Olympic champion of 2010, the 2009 World Champion and Four Continents champion of 2005 and 2007.
Career
Evan Lysacek was born on June 4, 1985 in Chicago and grew up in Naperville. His mother, Tanya, substitute teacher and his father, Don, contractors. Lysacek has an older sister, Laura, and a younger sister, Christina.
Lysacek has Italian and Czech ancestors, his great-grandfather František Lysáček emigrated in 1925 from Czechoslovakia to Chicago. Lysacek is Greek Orthodox Christian.
Evan Lysacek began at age 8 with figure skating. His grandmother gave him for Christmas skates. He originally wanted to play ice hockey, but his mother reported him to learn to skate, together with his sister Laura for figure skating training on. He remained in the figure skating after a trainer had recognized his talent and brought him to initial success.
In 1999, Lysacek became a U.S. master of novices. A year later he already succeeded in doing so in the juniors. A consecutive victory at the U.S. Championships in the novice and junior level was last Terry Kubicka succeeded. In Figure Skating Junior World Championships Lysacek was 2001, 2003 and 2004 runner-up in 2001 behind his compatriot and rival Johnny Weir later time, which meant the first U.S. double victory at the Junior World Championships since 1987. In winning the Silver Medal 2003, he landed his first triple axel during the tournament.
After finishing school in 2003 he went to California at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo to train with Frank Carroll.
His first international medal winning Lysacek with bronze at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championship in 2004 behind the Canadians Jeffrey Buttle and Emanuel Sandhu. A year later he won the tournament and thus his first international title. He referred Li Chengjiang and Daisuke Takahashi on the courts. 2005 was also the year of his first world championship is in the seniors. In Moscow he immediately won a complete surprise bronze medal behind Stéphane Lambiel and Jeffrey Buttle, although he had spent as a destination only to participate in the free skate and had become at the national championships only the third-best American behind Johnny Weir and Timothy Goebel, but there in the Short Program had received only 6.0 of his career.
In 2006, Lysacek was second behind Weir at the U.S. Championships. At the Olympic Winter Games in Turin, he withdrew after the short program, which he finished in tenth place, a gastrointestinal flu. Unable to work and with the use of antibiotics, he still chose to run the freestyle. It was his hitherto best freestyle. He landed eight triple jumps and finished third in the Kürwertung what total earned him fourth place, seven points behind the bronze medal place. In the following World Cup in Calgary, he was again able to win the bronze medal as last year. This time behind Stéphane Lambiel and Brian Joubert. He succeeded in spite of renewed health problems. Due to a bacterial infection that even that caused coughing blood, he had to take three different antibiotics. After the World Cup, he toured as a regular member at Champions on Ice.
In 2007, he was in Spokane for the first time U.S. champion in the seniors. He landed the first time in the competition a quadruple jump and although a fourfold Rittberger in a combination followed by a triple Rittberger. A week later he helped this quad combination in the freestyle and his second gold medal at the Four Continents Championships in 2005, this time in front of Jeffrey Buttle and compatriot Jeremy Abbott. After the short program, he was still located on the fourth place, but as so often helped him to improve his routine. At the World Cup for the first time he tried a quadruple jump in the short program, again in a quadruple - triple combination. However, this did not succeed, he had to get out of the quadruple jump, touched with his hand the ice and was able to add only a double jump. Also in the freestyle he did not succeed, the planned combination. He was in both the short program as well as the freestyle Fifth and therefore also in the final ranking.
2008 Lysacek was his title at the U.S. Championships, in spite of a tie with Johnny Weir, defend in the tiebreaker. At the Four Continents Championships he was third. The World Cup this year he had to cancel because it a week earlier, was injured during training while attempting a triple Axel. In the summer he toured with Stars on Ice.
In 2009, he was only third in the U.S. Championships behind Jeremy Abbott and Brandon Mroz. At the Four Continents Championship in Vancouver, he won silver behind Patrick Chan. The end of March was followed by the World Cup in Lysacek 's Location Los Angeles. After the short program, he was in second place behind Brian Joubert, but won the free skating and became world champion. It was the first U.S. title since Todd Eldredge's victory in 1996. Lysacek It suffered from a stress fracture in his left foot, which did not allow him to attempt a quadruple jump. After the season, he took a break of two months in order to cure the violation. In November he won by a large margin at Skate America for the first time in his career, after he had already become three times runner-up in this tournament from 2005 to 2007. In December Lysacek also won the Grand Prix Final, before Nobunari Oda and Johnny Weir.
The year 2010, however, began with a small disappointment. Lysacek was only second in the national championships and had thereby significantly Jeremy Abbott defeated. For Abbott, Lysacek and Weir were qualified for the Olympic Games in Vancouver. In the short program to Stravinsky's The Firebird he managed with 90.30 points, a personal best and placed himself so close behind Yevgeny Plyushchenko and just ahead of Daisuke Takahashi. Lysacek won the freestyle with a personal best of 167.37 points and thus the gold medal with a personal best of 257.67 points, only 1.31 points behind Plyushchenko. It was the first non-Soviet or non-Russian Olympic victory and becoming the first U.S. Olympic gold medal since Brian Boitano in Calgary in 1988 and the first Olympic champion of a reigning world champion since Scott Hamilton in 1984.
After the competition there was a controversy. The returned defending Plyushchenko was considered a favorite and showed unlike Lysacek quadruple jumps. He felt cheated of victory. Unlike Lysacek but Plyushchenko made some mistakes in the free skate, so few of his jumps were flawless. Lysaceks freestyle to Rimsky -Korsakov's Scheherazade was flawless and extremely compact. Many experts expressed following the competition their opinions and lively discussions about the future of figure skating sport were held. Lysacek said after his Olympic victory at the World Cup.
By the way Lysacek studied acting at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills. He operates power yoga as conditioning training and is committed to a cancer foundation.
Results
- N = Novice; J = junior; Z = Withdrawn