American Olympic champions Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton have a new little brother, newly crowned 2010 Olympic Champion Evan Lysacek!
The 24-year-old skated a flawless, technically sound program Thursday night during the men’s finals in Vancouver, to become the first American man to win gold since Brian Boitano did in 1988 (coincidentally, also in Canada). I have rarely seen a skater want it more than Evan Lysacek did. Every bit of his skating was motivated—all of his energies were positive. That kind of drive is beyond inspiring. He deserved every ounce of that gold.
Silver medalist Yevgeny Plushenko had the drive too. He lost to Lysacek by just over a point, due to some minor technical and artistic deductions, but his skating was admirable. Scott Hamilton called him a “cat,” because he always lands on his feet. Any other skater would have fallen after the fumbled take-offs he did during his long program. But he held on to those jumps as if his life depended on it! In the end, he seemed proud of his performance, which in and of itself was an amazing feat, after three years off the ice.
Daisuke Takahashi took home the bronze last night, becoming the first Japanese man to ever medal in Olympic figure skating. Takahashi not only skated brilliantly, but he should serve as an inspiration to all competitive skaters. After a horrible fall on his quadruple toe-loop at the very beginning of his program, he shrugged it off and finished without a flaw. Speaking from personal experience, that is really HARD to do.
I remember skating under immense pressure at high-stakes competitions. If I fell on or popped the first jump, my focus also took a huge hit. I would be at a crossroads: either I give up, or I keep going to a respectable finish. If there’s one lesson I learned, it’s not over til it’s over. Fortunately, more times than not, I was able to regain focus and motivation after an error. And more often than not, I’d still win the gold! Takahashi could have given up after that first quad. But he didn’t—and he made history.
The same challenge presents itself to skaters who have had a rough short program. Going into the long program, it’s easy to think, “well, I screwed up already so it’s not going to get any better no matter what I do.” No! Don’t think that way! Why not think, “well, I have nothing to lose, so I’m going to go out there and show them I can do it.” Sure, you may not win gold, but you will have scored some serious courage points!
American Jeremy Abbott had a disastrous short program that left him in 14th place going into Thursday’s final. He was visibly nervous, and probably not thinking too positively. Coming into the long program, he looked just as nervous…not a good sign. He fell on his first quad and bobbled on another jump, but otherwise skated quite well. He told the Detroit Free Press that after he fell on his quad he paused and said to himself, “You have to fight for the rest of this program. You can’t just give up and die here, you can’t let this go.”
I’m excited for his future in figure skating.
Many congratulations to Evan Lysacek and the other medal finishers! For great video recaps of Thursday’s competition, check out NBCOlympics.com.
