Evan Lysacek Interview
It’s our extreme honor and privilege to offer our readers an exclusive interview with Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater Evan Lysacek. Taking a brief break from the country music world, we caught up with the superstar at his hometown celebration this past weekend in
(CSC) 1. Thank you for your time. First of all, congrats on your recent victory!! What was the most challenging factor that you attribute to winning the Gold Medal?
(Evan Lysacek)
Thank you! I think it was just the perseverance through obviously a lot of the adversity that you face as an Olympic athlete. There are good times and there are bad times and there is a lot of pressure as well. Going in with the pressure of being the world champion was really difficult. I had high expectations and I had to stay calm to be in control of every thought going through my head for months and months beforehand. To keep it all under control was a challenge but I thank my family, and my coaches for keeping my head in the right place.
(CSC) 2. You’ve recently joined the cast of ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars,” with a successful dancing debut this past week, what expectations do you have for the show and what do you hope to take from this opportunity?
(Evan Lysacek)
I signed on a couple months before the Olympics to do the show because I wanted to move onto the next challenge right after the Olympics. After training for one thing for so many years that once that event was over I think I could have felt a void in my life. I was ready to move on, and this satisfies my daily structure for training and just my competitive fire. You know I’ve been criticized my whole career for not being musical and not being artistic or graceful so this is kind of my way to either prove critics wrong or prove them very right. I’m learning to dance or trying to at least.
(CSC) 3. Being from
(Evan Lysacek)
It’s been an honor obviously to come back and to be in a community that has supported me since day one and been so helpful, but it’s also an opportunity for me to say thank you to people that have backed me and supported me for my whole career and really made me feel like I’m coming from a community!
(CSC) 4. Please tell me about the Stephanie Joseph memorial fund and how she has affected your life personally?
(Evan Lysacek)
Stephanie was one of my first skating friends when I started skating; we started together. She was also my neighbor, our families were very close and we celebrated many good times together and numerous holidays. When she was twenty-one years old she lost her life to a very rare type of cancer that she had been battling since she was very young, since she was eight years old. So with her family’s blessing, this was a way for us to allow her legacy to live on and to give scholarships to people that have been affected by terminal illness and help them to financially at least go for their goals and dreams. Our last fundraiser was in September of 2008 and we lined ourselves up with the Make-A-Wish foundation, which was one of the organizations that I worked with and we’re planning another show on September 11th here back in Chicago but tonight its just a fundraiser for the fund and to try and raise awareness.
(CSC) 5. Beginning next month, you will be joining the annual Smucker’s “Stars On Ice” tour. Do you tend to feel more at ease being able to skate for your enjoyment opposed to being judged by a score?
(Evan Lysacek)
Yeah definitely; it’s going to be tough to keep the schedules up with Dancing With The Stars, I’ll be in LA for the live shows on Monday’s and Tuesday’s and then fly out and join the cast every Wednesday through Saturday and then fly back into LA on Sunday’s. I think it’s important for me to go and celebrate the best way I know how on the ice with my fans. There are no rules; it’s just for fun and skating to very positive songs. I’m looking forward to the show, we’ll be touring all over the United States but obviously the most important stop is right here for me in Chicago on May 8th. A lot of my friends and family will be there watching and hopefully a lot of my fans from right here in Chicago! (You may purchase tickets here: http://www.starsonice.com/figure-skating/ )
(CSC) 6. When you aren’t working on the ice or training, what activities do you enjoy doing on your free time?
(Evan Lysacek)
I’m never not working.
(CSC) 7. How did you manage to get acclaimed designer Vera Wang to create custom costumes for you?
(Evan Lysacek)
Vera has been a good friend of mine for about five years. We actually worked together on another charity organization called “Figure Skating in Harlem” which provides tutoring and skating lessons for girls ages eight to eighteen. Most of them come from not a great home life with either one parent or no parent at all. They go into this program and they become doctors, lawyers, Ivy League graduates, you name it. It’s a great organization and we have a big celebrity gala every year. This year it’s on April 5th, Donald Trump another friend of mine is a huge supporter and it’s his rink (Wollman Skating Rink) in New York City where we have the event. Vera has been very, very involved with it and very passionate about it, she’s like family to me. Whenever I go to New York I stay with her and her daughters are like my sisters. She’s been just such a great supporter and was in Vancouver with me during the Olympics. She’s made all of my costumes this year with about five or six different looks for me but overall we just kind of show the same style and same tastes. We were excited to collaborate together and come up with looks that we both felt were very unique and cool and were reflected kind of who we are as people.
(CSC) 8. Moving forward, set aside from being an accomplished figure skater and now dancer on television, are there any other projects you’d consider trying?
(Evan Lysacek)
Yeah I’ve gotten some enticing offers to do some broadcast, do some acting, do some different types of skating so I’m just kind of trying to figure out what my next goal is going to be and plan a path out. I think I’ve always been the type of person that figures out what I want and figures out how to get it and kind of sticks to that plan!
Join Evan on his official Twitter account here: http://www.Twitter.com/EvanLysacek
Enjoy pictures from the interview below. Do not use without permission. Images are copyrighted to Country Stars Central.
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