Figure Skater Evan Lysacek On 'Rise,' 'Dancing With The Stars'

Olympic figure skating champion Evan Lysacek is hitting the ice to pay tribute to the 1961 U.S. Olympic figure skating team, which lost many of its members in a tragic plane crash. On the 50th anniversary, Lysacek and other top U.S. skaters commemorate the team with the new documentary, Rise.

Lysacek’s figure skating talent was born out of Naperville, Ill., from parents of Czech and Italian descent. His grandmother always had dreams of being in the Ice Capades and gave him ice skates as a gift. Lysacek had his own dreams of playing ice hockey, so at the age of 8, his mother found a nice medium for him in figure skating lessons. Lysacek's diligence for dancing on ice was quickly recognized, and by the age of 11 he was competing for national recognition.

Lysacek skated in several junior competitions, seven of which saw him take first place. At the age of 19, he finally placed into senior competitions. He won his first gold medal in a senior competition in 2005 at the Four Continents Championships, and won again in 2007. During the 2006 Winter Olympics, Lysacek competed with the U.S. Olympic team where he placed fourth in the men’s event. Lysacek clearly thrives as a solo artist on the ice, and every year onward, his talent showed immense improvement. In 2007 and 2008, Lysacek was crowned the U.S. National Champion of figure skating, in 2009 he was named the World Champion and in 2010 he was bestowed the deserving title of Olympic Champion.

Lysacek has managed to engage himself in other side projects. He has studied method acting at the Professional Arts School in Beverly Hills and appeared in the short independent film, Skate Great! He showed off that he is as “good on wood” as he is “nice on ice” as a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2010, with professional dance partner, Anna Trebunskaya. He is a dedicated supporter of a number of organizations including Target—A Time For Heroes, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

After winning the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships, Lysacek became sponsored by many big name brands such as Coca-Cola, AT&T and Ralph Lauren. During his competitions, Lysacek has dazzled in a number of high-end designer’s costumes, such as Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen and Vera Wang, the last of whom designed his entire costume array for the 2009-2010 season.

Here, Lysacek sits down with Uinterview to talk about Rise, the documentary that pays tribute to the 1961 Olympic team. Upon discussing the old-school style of skating both in the form and style of the 60’s, Lysacek tells Uinterview, “Sometimes I think to myself that I would have fit in better in that era than I do now.”