Lysacek Works for This Bronze

Coaxing his heart to prevail over his aching lungs and tired legs, American figure skater Evan Lysacek extracted a bronze medal from looming failure at the world championships.

U.S. champion Johnny Weir was left to extract ice chips from his chest after a hard fall shattered his last hope of salvaging a disastrous season and he finished seventh.

Lysacek, who trains in El Segundo, on Thursday made an improbable leap from seventh after the short program to third. Buoyed by a lightness of spirit, he performed a powerful routine to “Carmen” that included a quadruple-triple combination. After most of his rivals flailed and flopped, Lysacek earned his second successive world bronze medal, behind two-time winner Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland and silver medalist Brian Joubert of France.

“Last year was fun and I was the new kid on the block, and I came in and swept up a bronze like nothing. It was just fun,” Lysacek said. “This year was a complete reverse of that. It was stress. It was a lot of pressure. I was very nervous. Today I just said, ‘I love skating. It’s been one heck of a long season. I’ve been to you-know-where and back between everything that’s gone on and I’m going to try and put the quad out there, which is a huge hurdle, and go out and rock out.’

“It’s days like these when I can relax a little bit and take a baby step back from it and say it was worth it, to just let go and enjoy it.”

The 20-year-old Chicago native had a hip injury earlier this season and a bacterial infection last week. He took a hard tumble on a quadruple toe loop while warming up Thursday but kept it in his routine.

His determination and spark were reminiscent of his rally at the Turin Games, where he moved up from 10th after the short program to fourth.

“You could see his heart was in it,” said his coach, Frank Carroll. “I think he has great heart. I think he needs to believe in himself more. He’s not at the point yet where he really knows how good he is.”

Lambiel, the Turin silver medalist, was the last skater. He incorporated two quadruple jumps into a smooth routine to Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and finished with 274.22 points, to 270.83 for Joubert and 255.22 for Lysacek.

“I’m very proud I came here. I competed. I fought,” Lambiel said.

Weir, however, succumbed to back pain and self-doubt.

“I haven’t skated well at one event, consistently for both programs,” he said. “I’m really happy it’s over and I can sit down and re-strategize and see what I can do to make myself better.”

The third U.S. entrant, Matt Savoie of Peoria, Ill., was 11th in his competitive finale.

In ice dance, Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the U.S. dropped from third to fourth after the original dance, 2.16 points behind leaders Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria. The champion will be determined by today’s free dance.

The women’s event resumes with the short program. Joannie Rochette of Canada leads, followed by Fumie Suguri of Japan, Kimmie Meissner of Bel Air, Md., Yukari Nakano of Japan, Sasha Cohen of Corona del Mar and Emily Hughes of Great Neck, N.Y.