Interview with Evan Lysacek Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver
"I'm willing to sacrifice everything"
Q: What were your emotions in the free skating? Evan: Well, my short program also was really emotional for me. That kind of got the ball rolling. I felt good on this ice all week. I got out for the free skate and I was really happy to be on the ice. I was nervous all day, and I realized this is the one thing that I want most in the world and why I’m nervous for it? My coach talked to me all day and fed thoughts into my mind. Then about two hours before the event, my nerves disappeared and I was just calm. I just had this feeling that it was going to be a really special night for me. I tried to enjoy it. Then I was rushing around in the warm up time, to get ready to go first and then finally was like ‘calm down, calm down’. Nothing now leading up to the moment my music starts really matters. It’s just when that music starts I have to do it. That was my mentality. And then with each jump, I started to get more excited, but I told myself, ‘calm down. You’re supposed to be a king here and kings don’t get excited.’ But at the end, I felt so thrilled to have my best performance in such an important moment.
Q: What were you thinking on the podium? Evan: It’s so quick for us in skating! The other sports get to wait 24 hours and let it sink in and then go to the medals plaza, and for me it was so quick. The results came up and it was like, ‘get your skates on, get on the ice’, and it felt like a split second. Watching my flag go up and hearing the National anthem was so surreal, because that’s a moment that kids see and everyone dreams about it. I was thinking about the hard times that happened in the last year, in the last months. I want to relive it! I could stand there for an hour and thought of every moment that I doubted that my dream would ever come true. It’s so special.
Q: What were the hardest times you had to go through in your career? Evan: Injuries always are hard, because I love to skate so much and anything that takes me away from the ice is a problem. The way that I put things in perspective always is to think about people that have real problems, they have bills to pay, families to support and terminal illnesses to deal with. I’m very lucky to be doing something that I love every single day.
Q: What are you going to do with your gold medal? It’s pretty big! Evan: For now I’m going to wear it everywhere. It’s really big and it’s beautiful. I’d love to display it. I don’t really have any of my medals displayed at home. I keep them in boxes and filed by year, but this one is the kind of medal that I probably want to see every day.
Q: Have you talked to Evgeni Plushenko since coming back for the exhibition gala? Evan: I said hello to him. I’ve always been friendly to him. I really looked up to him as a role model. He has inspired me a lot and he will probably go down as one of the greatest of all times, dominating then sport for more than 12 years. He has three Olympic medals, that’s pretty impressive.
Q: What is your response to the critiscm Plushenko and others have voiced? Evan: It’s hard for me to respond to it, because our approach was so different. It’s not like that I came in plotting and saying ‘I know that I can still win without doing the quad’. I wasn’t planning on winning a gold medal and he was. For the last year he’s been plotting winning that gold medal, and there was really only one option and for me it was about my performance. A couple of weeks ago like I had explained, because of my foot, I had decided not to do the quad. And I wasn’t thinking like ‘oh, no, that’s my gold medal gone.’ It doesn’t matter! I want to have my best skate, and I can still have my best skate whether I do that one jump or not. It’s only one jump. I don’t think it makes my program any more less difficult not doing it as far as the stamina and getting through it and getting through the other elements it’s exactly the same. I was just so fortunate to have that performance. Good timing is everything.
Q: In a recent interview, your coach Frank Caroll has said that you are the most determined skater he has ever seen. How do you feel about that? Evan: I enjoy working hard. It’s something that gives me great satifaction. I’m just very goal-oriented. I’m willing to sacrifice everything. I feel that what maybe made the difference for me is the willingness to give up everyting, my entire life, for this.
