Evan Lysacek

Lysacek is of half-Czech descent; his paternal great-grandfather František Lysáček emigrated from Czechoslovakia's Moravia region to Chicago in 1925.

On his maternal side, he is of one-quarter Italian descent.

He is a Greek Orthodox Christian, having stated that one of his most prized possessions is his Orthodox cross.

Evan Frank Lysacek (born June 4, 1985) is an American retired figure skater.

Lysacek performed two clean programs and came in second behind fellow American Johnny Weir, giving the United States both a gold and a silver on the World Junior podium for the first time since 1987.

Over the next season, Lysacek dealt with several injuries, including broken ribs, which resulted in lost training time.

In 1996, Lysacek won the U.S. national title at the juvenile level – the lowest qualifying level in the U.S. Figure Skating competition structure.

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 at the novice level in 1998, Lysacek won the U.S. Novice title at the 1999 U.S. Championships at the age of thirteen.

During high school, Lysacek was a member of the honor roll, where he earned a number of academic achievement awards, including the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence in 1999.

In the 1999–2000 season, Lysacek made his international junior debut and competed on the 1999–2000 ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit.

He placed seventh at his first event and then won his second event.

He was the third alternate to the 1999–2000 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final.

At the 2000 U.S. Championships, Lysacek won the Junior title at the age of fourteen.

He placed 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.

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.

Following the U.S. Championships, he was assigned to the 2000 Gardena Spring Trophy in Urtijëi, Italy, where he won the silver medal at the junior level.

Lysacek had a strong showing in the 2000–2001 season.

He competed in his second season on the Junior Grand Prix circuit and won two silver medals.

He was the 7th qualifier for the 2000–2001 Junior Grand Prix Final and placed 8th at the Final.

He made his senior national debut at the 2001 U.S. Championships, placing 12th at the age of fifteen.

Lysacek was named second alternate to the U.S. team to the 2001 World Junior Championships and was placed on the team after Ryan Bradley withdrew due to injury.

Lysacek graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in 2003.

Lysacek moved to Los Angeles, California, in 2003, following his graduation from high school.

Lysacek studied acting, having taken method acting classes at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills.

He appeared in the independent short film Skate Great!, playing a Russian Olympic gold medalist.

He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, a two-time (2005, 2007) Four Continents champion, the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion, and a two-time (2007, 2008) U.S. national champion.

Lysacek was the 2010 United States Olympic Committee's SportsMan of the Year, and the winner of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top U.S. amateur athlete of 2010.

In September 2014, Lysacek moved to New York City to pursue a career in commercial real estate.

In 2015, he started working for Vera Wang, his former costume designer.

On January 22, 2016, he was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Lysacek was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in nearby Naperville.

His mother, Tanya (née Santoro), 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.

He became engaged to real estate developer Duangpatra "Dang" Bodiratnangkura in April 2019.

They married in December 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand.

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 ice hockey, so his mother enrolled him and his sister Laura in figure skating lessons to learn how to skate.