VANCOUVER, British Columbia — He skated into our lives in Vera Wang.
Nearly 15 years of triple axels, flying sit spins and double toe loops had boiled down to 4 1/2 minutes for Evan Lysacek.
Evgeni Plushenko, a Russian legend on the comeback trail and the last to take the ice Thursday night in the men’s figuring skating free skate, was all that separated the 24-year-old American from Olympic glory.
When Lysacek’s 280 seconds on the ice were over, he waited.
Maybe he wondered how a path sprinkled with injuries to his head, hip, stomach and feet had led him here. Maybe he wondered how he managed to live in Los Angeles and never go Hollywood.
Maybe the eternal neat freak was already mapping out how he’d remodel his four-bedroom pad in Las Vegas and cultivate his eye for design.
Or maybe he was just hoping to hang on.
Whatever danced through Lysacek’s mind Thursday night, the wait was well worth it.
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Lycasek became the first American man to win Olympic gold since Brian Boitano in 1988 with an unforgettable performance that showed off his artistic and athletic grace. He whipped the Pacific Coliseum crowd into a frenzy with a 167.37 free-skate score en route to a gold-medal total of 257.67 to edge the Russian superstar Plushenko (256.36).
Daisuke Takahashi of Japan took bronze (247.23). American Johnny Weir, who lives and trains in
Lyndhurst, finished sixth (238.87).
“I couldn’t have asked for more than that,” said Lysacek, the reigning world champion. “I’ve just dreamed about it. I really had a good time.”
Lysacek stuck to four simple words that guided him to his greatest achievement: “Mind your own business.”
“I wrote it on a little card when I got here and taped it up in my room,” Lysacek said. “The truth of the matter was that mission was accomplished here.”
Plushenko, eyeing back-to-back Olympic golds, skated to Marton’s “Tango Amore.” The 27-year-old Russian, fresh off a three-year sabbatical, had designs of becoming the first male repeat as Olympic champion since Dick Button in 1952 before Lysacek crashed the party with his personal-best total.
Wearing all black with two snake designs wrapped around his lean frame, Lysacek skated to the music of Rimsky Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”
“I started to get excited after every jump,” Lysacek admitted. “I had to remind myself to save energy and not overexert. I was trying to stay calm in the beginning, but my face was giving it away that I was excited. I wasn’t even tired at the end. The crowd kept me going.”
When it was over, Lysacek let out five double fist-pumps and took his bows as he waited for the final five skaters. When it came down to the American and Plushenko — the final skater of the night — the question beckoned: Would Lysacek’s routine void of a quad toe-loop be enough to pull ahead of the legend?
Lysacek, the first reigning world champion to reach the top of the Olympic podium since Scott Hamilton in 1984, was in a virtual dead-heat with the Russian after the short program. The American had positioned himself well with a career-best 90.30 performance on that night.
Plushenko had posted an Olympic-record 90.85 on the strength of perfect quad toe-loop combination — a move only a handful of the skaters in the world can execute — in the short program. The Russian’s razor-thin margin entering the free skate added to the drama.
Lysacek dismissed all along that he couldn’t beat Plushenko without a quad in his free skate program. The American believed his artistry would carry the day.
In the end, he was right.
“If it was a jumping competition, they would give us 10 seconds to run and do your best jump,” Lysacek said. “It’s a 4-minute, 40-second program. It’s about sustaining that level of excitement and endurance from start to finish.”
Lysacek, whose 2009 world title performance was also quad-free, put the pressure on the Russian with a technically clean performance.
The lean, 6-2 native of Naperville, Ill., landed all his jumps just hours after he admitted his left foot injury was still bothering him.
Lysacek’s big moment also erased his own personal nightmare in Turin. He battled a bacterial infection, which kept him off the medal podium with a heartbreaking fourth-place showing.
Four years later, everything was perfect.
“This year, I probably worked harder than I ever have before,” Lysacek said.
“The whole season had been building towards this. I’ve been waiting for that clean skate. To finally get it in the most important moment was pretty special.”
Manish Mehta may be reached at mmehta@starledger.com