Evan Lysacek, Marai Nagasu and coaches Frank Carroll and Christa Fassi were honored with a homecoming reception at their home rink, the Toyota Sports Center, in El Segundo, California Tuesday evening, March 9th.  The event was open to the public on a first-come-first-served basis and about 350 local skaters, parent and fans were on hand to meet and cheer Olympic Men's Champion Lysacek, and Olympic team member Nagasu, who placed fourth in the Ladies event.

Fans started lining up at about 5:30 PM for the 6:00 PM event which got underway at 6:30 PM in the inline rink at the Toyota Center.  Starting with the presentation of the colors by the the nearby Los Angeles Air Force Base honor guard, the national anthem was sung by Sheena Loza, the sister of local skater China Loza. A musical interlude was followed by Toyota's Director of Skating Juliette Harton who introduced the four honorees, entering to the Olympic fanfare.

EL Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell presented the four with certificates from the city, as did Mayor John Wuo for the city of Arcadia, California,  He also showed off a photograph of a banner placed by the city in Arcadia that honors Nagasu, whose family lives in Arcadia and has a restaurant there.

Gifts and honors were also presented on behalf of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings who train at the Toyota Center.  These were presented by skaters from the Pasadena Figure Skating club and the Figure Skating Club of Southern California, as both teams were away on road trips.  Pasadena is the home club of Nagasu, and So. California is the club that operates out of the Toyota Center.  The Center also presented both Lysacek and Nagasu lifetime VIP passes that allow them to skate free of charge at the Center for life.

Following the presentations, Olympian Burt Lancon, who competed in Pairs at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and now coaches in El Segundo led a question and answer period from the audience, taking questions from the many young skaters in the audience.  Among the many good questions one young skater asked Frank Carroll if she would need a triple Axel and quad jumps to win the 2018 Olympics, and another asked Evan how it felt to win the Olympics, and as we would all like to know, who was going to win Dancing with the Stars.

[Click on the links for sound bite files.]

The reception closed with an autograph session, with the skaters and coaches spending over 45 minutes patiently and graciously signing autographs and having their pictures taken with fans.

Nagasu will be leaving next week to compete at the World Championships in Turin, Italy, while Lysacek will be preparing for Dancing with the Stars, and will be skipping Worlds this year.

Olympic Men's Champion
Evan Lysacek