Evan Lysacek still proudly represents the United States around the world, but now his mission is not to take the ice – it's to break the ice.
As a sports envoy with the U.S. Department of State, the 2010 Olympic champion participates in outreach programs initiated by U.S. embassies in partnership with local organizations.
"My role is soft diplomacy," Lysacek said. "The goal is to essentially increase dialogue and understanding while delivering targeted messaging. The majority of the time there's a sports tie-in, so it's using sports as an entry point to a conversation."
Just before the pandemic began, Lysacek traveled to Malaysia, Japan and Singapore. He has also been involved in programs in eastern and western Europe, Scandinavia and central Asia, either on site or working remotely.
"The United States' relationships with each country are so nuanced," Lysacek said. "It's been such a tremendous education for me and I'm so appreciative for it."
The world of business provides an outlet for his competitive instincts. Lysacek, 35, worked in commercial real estate for Charter Realty & Development and then in fashion as a creative consultant and vice president with Vera Wang. He is now active in residential real estate in Los Angeles and Thailand with his wife of about 17 months, Duangpatra "Dang" Bodiratnangkura.
"Everything that I learned as an athlete is applicable in business," Lysacek said, "The virtues and also the mindset. I use every tool that I have honed for my entire life as a skater to succeed in business, transactions, deal-making and project management."
One lesson in particular carries over into business. "You have to persevere and be persistent," Lysacek said, "because learning and training requires that you fall down thousands and thousands of times. You're trying, you fall, you fail so many times that you have no choice but to get up, dust yourself off and continue."
He said that due to COVID-19, business models are changing so quickly "that you have to remain agile. When you hit a wall and realize that the strategy that you've honed and crafted and spent a lot of time working on no longer works, you have to adapt, rethink and keep going."
Adapting to the pandemic rekindled Lysacek's desire to skate. Because of his grueling work pace when he lived in New York, Lysacek did not skate for about five and a half years. While locked down in California, he said, "I got tired of doing crunches and running on a treadmill. I thought, 'I love other sports, I love skiing, I love tennis, but I missed skating.'"
Lysacek, who was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2016, started going to a rink one day a week. "That's all I could handle," he said. "It would take me the whole week to recover because it's so hard. But I love it. I can do some jumps. I can do some spins. I love the challenge of trying to get the triple Lutz back and get the triple flip back. And, obviously I don't put the same pressure on myself that I did when I was training, so I really enjoy it."
His return has also been therapeutic. Lysacek retired after winning the gold in Vancouver, but launched a comeback as the Sochi Games approached. However, a groin injury and a hernia required surgery, then a torn labrum in his left hip in August 2013 derailed his dreams before he could compete again.
"The end of my career was so heartbreaking for me," Lysacek said. "I invested everything, time and tons of money into coming back for the Olympics in 2014. And then to be injured and have my body fail and face the reality that my career was essentially over, and that skating -- what I had known and loved for so long -- wasn't my life any more, it was very hard."
And getting back on the ice has only reinforced his admiration for those who compete in what he calls "the hardest sport in the world."
"I have even a new appreciation for what we all did, my generation," Lysacek said, "and for what this new generation is doing. It's just hats off to everyone, bravo, because it is an impossible sport."
His wife knew nothing about skating when they were introduced by mutual friends after the 2010 Games. But while Lysacek was training for Sochi, Dang would sometimes sit in the stands with a blanket and watch. They stayed in touch over the years, and then Lysacek said, "the timing was perfect," and they got engaged in April 2019.
Their wedding eight months later was a luxurious and elegant extravaganza in Bangkok that was featured in People magazine. The dessert room had more than 70 offerings and the bride, of course, wore dresses designed by Vera Wang for two of the events during the multi-day celebration.
"It was such a fun wedding," Lysacek said. "We were motivated by finding a way to merge both of our cultures, East and West."
Nearly 100 guests came from the United States for the festivities. "We just wanted to make it spectacular," Lysacek said.
Dang, who is from a prominent Thai family, went to boarding school and university in the United Kingdom. She moved to Los Angeles to go to Pepperdine University for graduate school, then stayed and founded her own real estate company 15 years ago.
After working on a project in Thailand, Dang and Lysacek returned to the United States just in time for the lockdown.
"Honestly, we have appreciated the time together so much," said Lysacek, noting that they celebrate on their wedding date every month. "Obviously the circumstances around COVID-19 are devastating and horrific, but the flip side of it, and potentially a silver lining, is we've been so lucky to spend the last year and really the first year of our marriage together."
Sadly, they spent their first anniversary week in hospice with Lysacek's father, Don, who passed away after battling cancer for more than a dozen years.
Lysacek was grateful that his father was able to attend the wedding and said that he "absolutely adored skating" even though he was "a nervous wreck" while watching his son compete.
When the Naperville, Illinois, native won the gold in 2010, he was the first American man since Brian Boitano 22 years earlier to become Olympic champion. Now 12 years have gone by with no U.S. men's singles medal of any kind.
Lysacek believes
Nathan Chen can break the drought. He has known Chen since the three-time World champion was a child and even trained with him when their careers overlapped.
"He's always been super-human, he has always been focused and always been determined," said the 2009 World champ.
Lysacek has enjoyed maintaining a connection with Team USA.
At the 2019 "Champs Camp," he said he told the participants, "Please feel, I'm an ally and I'm a resource for you. I didn't do everything right; I certainly made mistakes throughout my career, but I have a lot of experience to share, and I would love to help anyone that needs it."
Lysacek, who was coached by Frank Carroll, said that he always tells young skaters not to compare themselves to others "because it really doesn't matter. They might be way better than you, they might be way more talented, they might be able to do things you could never dream of -- which is the case for me -- but I still always believed I could win.
"I used strategy and I used preparation," he added, "and I always tried to identify opportunities and seize them. And I proved many times that I could still win even though I wasn't the best."
