©2010 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
Naperville skater Evan Lysacek appeared here previously in a collection of other portraits of Olympic hopefuls, but I didn’t make any comment about his photo. Now that he rocked the Olympics by being the first U.S. man to win a gold medal in skating since 1988, I thought I’d post some specifics. In that post, I described some technical details on how the photos were supposed to look, but the look he was creating was one of focused intensity. I’m not exaggerating or lassoing a star when I say that of the seventy-some athletes I shot during those three days, Lysacek was the one whose intensity stood out. I was actually a bit startled by it. Maybe it was his eyebrows and tightly clenched jaw, or his dark eyes and quite demeanor – or all of that. As you look at his photo, especially the one at left, remember that he’s facing me and a crazy crowd of activity behind me – photographers, agents, athletes, etc.. all bumping into each other and creating a raucous roar. Some athletes handled that by being funny or irreverent. Some appeared a bit tired or distracted. Lysacek stood in and quickly stared at me with such concentration, I knew he was focusing more on the picture than I was.
This photo is absolutely stunning. During the Olympics the announcers kept saying that Lysacek had the most intense training regiment of all the skaters. I think that you have captured this intensity and are right in saying that it is a bit off-putting. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Matt. It’s now fun to see that he’ll be on Dancing with the Stars..!