Lysacek Nominated for Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/magazine/sportsman/11/03/mahr.lysacek/index.html

FYI, Evan has been nominated for the SI 2010 award. This is a fairly big deal. This award hardly ever goes to athletes from anything other than the traditional stick and ball team sports. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Illustrated_Sportsman_of_the_Year

As you can see, other than hockey players, the only winter athletes to win it are Bonnie Blair and Johan Olav Koss (jointly).

Like him or his skating or not, just being nominated for the award is a big deal for skating visibility. Even if he does not win, there will be an article on him in the issue announcing the award.

Go Evan!

Granted, the writer's take on the story -- gritty American underdog Rocky Balboa beats up robotic Russian superman -- seems a little corny these days. Still...it's nice to see that patriotism is alive and well at the Olympic winter games! :yes:

I had to stop reading at "forget the quad controversy." It should not be forgotten. It is a sport, it is the olympics and even though the judges wanted Lysacek to be seen as the best his win is disgusting.

gmyers said:

It is a sport, it is the olympics and even though the judges wanted Lysacek to be seen as the best his win is disgusting.

Click to expand...

Most disgusting would have been to see Plushenko winning with that freeskate... Besides, quad or no quad, Evan still won on technical elements. And that is sport!

Good for Evan!

Thanks for the warning about how the article is written. I wish they could have gotten someone like E.M. Swift to write this. But if we need poetic writing about skating, we can always read the posts here! Also, I'm keeping in mind that the writer isn't the only one who isn't familiar with skating: most of the magazine's readership isn't, either. So using the vocabulary of the typical football/baseball fan isn't a bad idea and might garner our skater some votes--though if Lysacek wins, that would really be a Rocky Balboa moment! One thing I liked about the article is that it made significant mention of Frank Carroll. The role of the coach, and the importance of the gold medal to this particular coach, is a part of the story that I'm glad to see spotlighted.

Who else was nominated?