Two-time World Champion bronze medalist figure skater Evan Lysacek has come a long way from the lucky blue sweatsuit and lightening bolt super hero costume that helped him begin his career on ice. In fact, Lysacek’s original intention was to be a hockey player.
“I started skating after I got a pair of skates for Christmas from my grandma. I idolized the (Chicago) Blackhawks, so I wanted to play hockey. I went and tried out for the hockey team and I couldn’t stand up. I had no natural ability whatsoever on ice,” he says.
In order to polish up his skating skills, he was advised to take figure skating lessons. “My favorite part of the class was always the free skating where you could just skate around as fast as you wanted to. I would just whip around the ice and weave through people,” Lysacek says.
The brave, young skater caught the eye of a figure skating coach, who gradually taught Lysacek how to perform tricks on the ice. By the age of 10, he was old enough to begin competing.
“I said, 'The only way I’ll compete is if I can wear my lucky blue sweatsuit,' which I wore to practice every day,” Lysacek says. The sweatsuit proved itself during the competition, as the young skater glided over the ice to the Top Gun soundtrack and qualified for the Junior Olympic competition.
For his Junior Olympic debut, Lysacek’s attire was no less exciting: he would only agree to compete if he could dress as a super hero. “I found a picture of this super hero costume that I wanted, which had yellow lightening bolts on it. I had one made for me and that’s what I wore. I went out with my horrible Top Gun music and I won Junior Olympics at the age 10,” he says.
Though the championship was the first national title the skater had ever won, he has continued his winning tradition. Lysacek has recently earned World bronze medalist, U.S. National Champion and U.S. National silver and bronze medalist honors.
With the company of Sasha Cohen, Surya Bonaly, Johnny Weir, Irina Grigorian and Kimmie Meissner, in addition to many others, Lysacek will grace Columbus with his talent on May 5, during the Champions on Ice tour. The performance will feature individual, group, and paired appearances by each skater in addition to incorporating entertainment for all ages.
“I think the tour itself has a lot of diversity. There’s something for everyone. We have a really wide mix in music. We’ve got skaters from a couple eras ago,” Lysacek says. The show also features a male acrobatic pair that has received hype due to the recent Will Ferrell and Jon Heder movie, Blades of Glory.
Despite the fact that the production requires the skaters to work together with their competition, according to Lysacek, it's been smooth sailing thus far.
“It’s really cool because we all have our own rivalries and our own competitors on the tour, but because this is a collaborative project, all of our names are on it and we have to work together as a team to put out the best show that we possibly can. There’s kind of a cool camaraderie between all the skaters because we know it’s all of our product," he says.
While the skaters have the opportunity to dazzle various audiences around the country, Lysacek says the cast still hasn’t forgotten last year’s Columbus performance.
“Last year at the Nationwide Arena … [Columbus] was the loudest crowd that we had in the whole tour. We remember it for that and we’re really looking forward to getting here," he says.
The show will make its pit stop in Columbus on May 5 for a matinee performance at 3 p.m. For more information or tickets, visit www.championsonice.com.