Olympic champion Evan Lysacek left the intensity on the ice.
In this interview to promote his appearance in Sunday's "Stars on Ice" at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, Lysacek is extremely placid. I thought he had just rolled out of bed, even though it was 10 a.m. No, said Lysacek, who admitted he was sporting "bedhead." He had been up doing interviews since about 4:45 a.m. And I'm told that most interviewers remarked on how mellow he is.
With his soothing yet interesting speaking style, one of the new careers Lysacek might want to consider post-skating is recording audio books. "Put you to sleep?" Lysacek said. "Oh thank you. You're so nice."
Close your eyes for a minute while watching my startribune.com/video and listen.
Q: What's the most unskater-like behavior you display in private?
A: I'm really not very skater-like. I've never fit in that well to figure skating. I'm not very flamboyant. I'm not really a natural performer. I'm pretty private, reserved. So in my new life in business it works pretty well for me, because I deal with people on a one-on-one basis. But I've never been very comfortable on TV, never really been that comfortable in front of crowds, so I've learned — and this is my fifth tour with "Stars on Ice" — I've kind of learned a little bit better how to be a performer, a showman, so to speak.
Q: Was there ever a chance you would've played hockey?
A: I started initially wanting to play hockey. I had met Chris Chelios, former Blackhawk, long ago in Chicago with my family; wanted to try out hockey. But I was young, had never skated before, never been on ice. So when I took to the ice for the first time, I had no natural ability whatsoever. I went into figure-skating classes to learn the basics. I wore double-runner, two-blade figure skates and eventually graduated to single blade. Once I learned stability on the ice and to go fast around the rink, then I fell in love with it. I wanted to learn tricks, but I still didn't know that much about figure skating. I learned as I went.