EVAN LYSACEK

'Most Recent Results:'
''Event''	''Points''	''Finish''	''Year''
World Championships	222.18	5th	2007
Four Continents	226.27	1st	2007
National Championships	248.88	1st	2007

'Evan Frank Lysacek' (born June 4, 1985) is an American figure skater. He is the 2007 US National Champion and a two-time World bronze medalist (2005–2006). Lysacek trains in El Segundo, California with coach Frank Carroll at the Toyota Sports Center. He is currently ranked fifth in the world. ISU World Standings for Figure Skating and Ice Dancing He was the United States Olympic Committee's Male Athlete of the Month for November 2006.^[1]

Contents

Personal life

Career

Early career

Senior success

Coaching changes

Off the ice

Programs

Competitive highlights

References

External links

Navigation

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^[2]. His cousin Cole Chason is a punter for the Clemson Tigers.^[3] 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. ²
Lysacek is Greek Orthodox and has stated that one of his most prized possessions is his Greek Orthodox cross.^[4] He wears Graf figure skating boots.^[5]
He is currently dating ice dancer Tanith Belbin.^[6][7]

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, he won the U.S. national title at the Juvenile level. In 1997, he moved up to Intermediate and won the pewter medal at junior nationals, after winning both his regionals and his sectionals. After failing to qualify for Nationals on the novice level in 1998^[8], Lysacek won the U.S. Novice title in 1999^[9] at the age of thirteen and then immediately followed it with the U.S. Junior title in 2000^[10] at the age of fourteen. He was the first male skater since Terry Kubicka to win back-to-back Novice and Junior Men's titles in the United States.^[11][12] The win on the junior level was unusual in that Lysacek moved from third to first while sitting backstage, because he won by earning the majority of places.^[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]12 dropped out 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 US had captured gold and silver on the World Junior podium.^[15]
The next season was a disappointing one. 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^[16] and did not allow their junior skaters to compete on the Junior Grand Prix circuit.^[17] Lysacek lost motivation, repeated his 12th place finish at the U.S. Championships and was not selected for the World Junior team.
After that, Lysacek changed his diet and his training habits and made goals for himself. 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' poor performance at the 2002 Junior Worlds, they only had two men's spots. The US team was under a lot of pressure to earn three spots for the 2004 Junior Worlds. But the withdrawel of Parker Pennington, the higher ranked man on the two man team, focused on all that pressure on Lysacek's performance. 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.¹² 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.^[18] 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.

In the 2004–2005 season, having aged out of juniors at age 19, Lysacek made his senior international debut. Skating through a hip injury^[19], 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 Nationals, Lysacek won the bronze medal after receiving the first and only 6.0 of his career for his short program.^[20] 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.^[21][22]
In the 2005–2006 season, Lysacek had a rough start. He placed second at 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.^[23] Lyscek's new ''Carmen'' program was a success at the 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.^[24] 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.^[25]
At the Olympics, following a disappointing 10th place finish in the short program, he was hit 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.^[26] 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.
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.^[27] Lysacek was credited with landing his first quadruple jump in competition, a quadruple toe loop. 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.
In the 2006–2007 season, Lysacek placed second at Skate America. Two weeks later, Lysacek won the gold medal at Cup of China by a 20-point margin.^[28] 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.^[29]
Lysacek resumed training a few weeks later.⁸ 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.^[30] 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.^[31][32] He placed fifth in the short program and earned himself his first new short program personal best in two years.⁸ 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.^[33] He performed a double loop instead of a planned triple loop⁸ and placed fifth once again in the long program, placing fifth over all.
Lysacek has been once again assigned to the Skate America and Cup Of China Grand Prix events for the 2007/2008 season.^[34]

Coaching changes

Lysacek was originally coached by Candice Brown.^[35]. 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, Kudriatsev 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.²¹¹² 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, when he began working solely with Carroll.
Lysacek has worked with many choreographers over the years, including Oleg Epstein³⁵⁸ and Kurt Browning, but both his programs for the 2007-2008 season have been choreographed by Lori Nichol.⁸

Off the ice

Lysacek studies acting on his own⁷ and has also taken method acting classes at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills⁸ He appeared in the independent short film ''Skate Great!'', playing a Russian Olympic gold medalist.^[36] Lysacek uses power yoga as conditioning training.^[37]
He has used his fame to support in a number of charities. He participated in Target - A Time for Heroes, a celebrity charity event benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.^[38] He also supports the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Jimmy Fund).²

Programs

Season	Short Program	Long Program	Exhibition
2007–08	''Zorro''	''Tosca''
'2006–07'	''Passion'' from ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' by Peter Gabriel choreographed by Kurt Browning	''Carmen Suite'' and ''Carmen'' by Georges Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin choreographed by Lori Nichol	''One'' by U2
			''Forever Young'' by Youth Group
			''Ave Maria'' by Andrea Bocelli
			''You Really Got Me'' by Van Halen
			''Boston'' by Augustana
			''I need you tonight'' by INXS
'2005–06'	''Vamos a Bailar'' by Gipsy Kings performed at Skate America and the NHK Trophy	''Grease'' arranged by Paul Rudolph performed at the Campbell's Classic and Skate America	''Sway'' by Michael Bublé
			''Time to Say Goodbye'' by Andrea Bocelli
	''España Cañí'' by Pascual Marquina newly rechoreographed by Lori Nichol performed starting with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.	''Carmen Suite'' and ''Carmen'' by Georges Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin choreographed by Lori Nichol performed starting with the NHK Trophy due to criticism with his ''Grease'' long program	''How to Pick Music'' ''Run It'', ''Get Rhythm'', and ''Hound Dog'' by Chris Brown, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley
'2004–05'	''España Cañí'' by Pascual Marquina	''Singin' in the Rain'' by the MGM Studio Orchestra	''Sway'' by Michael Bublé
'2003–04'	''España Cañí'' by Pascual Marquina	Second Piano Concerto by Sergei Rachmaninov	''Time to Say Goodbye'' by Andrea Bocelli
'2002–03'	''España Cañí'' by Pascual Marquina	''Drop Zone soundtrack'' by Hans Zimmer	''Time to Say Goodbye'' by Andrea Bocelli
			''Desert Rose'' by Sting
'2001–02'
'2000–01'		''Four Seasons'' by Antonio Vivaldi	''Let's Get Loud'' by Jennifer Lopez
'1999–2000'		''Romeo and Juliet''

Competitive highlights

Event	1998-1999	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008
Winter Olympic Games								4th
World Championships							3rd	3rd	5th
World Junior Championships			2nd		2nd	2nd
Four Continents Championships					10th	3rd	1st		1st
U.S. Championships	1st N.	1st J.	12th	12th	7th	5th	3rd	2nd	1st
Grand Prix Final									WD
Cup of China									1st	TBD
Skate America							5th	2nd	2nd	TBD
NHK Trophy								2nd
Cup of Russia							5th
Junior Grand Prix Final			8th		5th	1st
Junior Grand Prix, Croatia						1st
Junior Grand Prix, Japan						1st
Junior Grand Prix, Canada		7th			2nd
Junior Grand Prix, France					2nd
Junior Grand Prix, Norway			2nd
Junior Grand Prix, Germany			2nd
Junior Grand Prix, Sweden		1st
Gardena Spring Trophy		2nd J.
Triglav Trophy				1st J.
Event	1998-1999	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008

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

References

1. U.S. Olympic Committee Honors Figure Skater Evan Lysacek, Skeleton Athlete Katie Uhlaender and Women's Synchro Diving Team for November Accomplishments
2. Athletes: U.S. Figure Skatig Bio for Evan Lysacek
3. Player Bio: Cole Chason
4. Athletes: Evan Lysacek
5. Evan Lysacek's mailbag
6. Tanith Belbin & Evan Lysacek: Ice Skating's Hot Couple Lorenzo Benet
7. Rapping with Evan Paul LaTour
8. Evan Lysacek
9. 1999 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships
10. 2000 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships
11. For Lysacek, No Pain Means No Gain: Fracture in Pelvis Will Not Stop Promising Skater Amy Shiple
12. Three Pieces of Silver for Evan Lysacek
13. Notebook: Young skater mum about off-season work Lori Shontz
14. PLUS: FIGURE SKATING; U.S. Men Finish First and Second
15. U.S. figure skater wins men's event
16. ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2nd event in Phoenix (USA) Cancelled
17. Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2001, Ostrava (CZE)
18. Lysacek Wins Double JGP Gold, Heads to JGP Final
19. Lysacek Pushing Through The Pain of a Hip Injury
20. FIGURE SKATING: A Turmoil of Emotions, An "Unbeatable" Short Program for Goebel at the 2005 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships
21. Gaining elevation: An Olympic medal is not out of the question for former Naperville resident Evan Lysacek Philip Hersh
22. Evan Lysacek wins bronze at Worlds
23. An oldie but goodie. A late switch to "Carmen" has Evan Lysacek feeling comfortable about his long program again.
24. Lysacek Withdraws from Grand Prix Final and Marshalls Challenge Due to Injury
25. International Competition Selections, Including 2006 Olympic Team
26. A fine line for top-notch skaters Jim Carnes
27. Men's Qualifying Opens 2006 World Championships
28. Cup of China 2006: Men
29. Evan Lysacek Injured at Grand Prix Final
30. Lysacek Electrifies Spokane Arena to Win Gold
31. Lysacek fifth in short program Philip Hersh
32. Naperville's Lysacek skates on the edge Philip Hersh
33. Joubert skates to men's title Philip Hersh
34.
35. Evan Lysacek
36. Lysacek cuts impressive figure in film
37. Fit: Cutting-Edge Exercises Vicky Hallett
38. Lysacek To Appear at "Target — A Time For Heroes" Celebrity Fundraiser

External links

★ Official site

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★ U.S. Olympic team bio

★ Evan Lysacek - Fansite by Megi

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