Evan Lysacek celebrates winning gold at the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 on Feb. 18, 2010 in Vancouver.
Olympic champion Evan Lysacek knew he’d found his love when he reconnected with Duangpatra — Dang for short — Bodiratnangkura last summer.
After spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family in Chicago, they knew it, too.
“Afterwards they said unanimously… ‘Marry Her!’” Lysacek said. “Everyone who meets her falls in love with her. She’s not only brilliant and charming, but gorgeous inside and out.”
The 2010 men’s figure skating Olympic gold medalist announced his engagement to Bodiratnangkura this past Friday on Instagram. Lysacek, 33, posted a sweet photo of the two in an embrace with her looking up at him and a dazzling ring on her left hand front and center. He captioned it simply, “I’m the luckiest man alive.”
Fellow Olympians Sasha Cohen, Nastia Liukin, Lindsey Vonn, Johnny Weir and Kristi Yamaguchi were among those who offered their congratulations via comments on Instagram.
Lysacek said that he and Bodiratnangkura were introduced in 2011 by mutual friends, Laurie and Richard Stark, and “immediately connected.”
“We’ve remained in close touch through the years, but really reconnected last summer,” Lysacek said. “(We) have managed to live between our two cities (New York and Los Angeles) since.”
He proposed in Miami on her birthday, April 1. He said they will marry on Dec. 14 at the Nai Lert Park Heritage Home in Bangkok, a part of Bodiratnangkura’s family estate.
“I cannot express enough how lucky I feel to have found my perfect match in this incredible girl,” he said. “She’s extraordinary in every way and she makes me a better man.”
Bodiratnangkura is a residential real estate developer who also manages real estate development projects for her family, according to Lysacek’s representatives. She graduated with a master’s degree in international relations from Warwick University and also studied at Pepperdine University.
In addition to winning the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, Lysacek won the world championship in 2009, Four Continents tournament titles in 2005 and 2007, the 2009 Grand Prix Final and the national championship in 2007 and 2008.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
