Some sports fans might challenge the analogy, especially in an era of ultimate fighting and freestyle motocross.

Lysacek, however, holds firm.

To the wiry U.S. champion, who will headline the Champions on Ice exhibition Saturday at Nationwide Arena, the athletic talents of the top performers these days allow them to skate figure eights around their graceful predecessors.

"The jumps and stunts we are doing nowadays are like an extreme sport," said Lysacek, 21. "The days of doing five doubles and just skating to pretty music are over."

He demonstrated his grit at the 2006 Winter Olympics by willing himself to a surprising fourth-place finish after spending two days bedridden with a stomach flu.

With a hockey player for a hero, the Chicago-born skater keeps winning admirers for executing risky jumps in major competitions.

He landed a quadruple toe loop and six triple jumps in late March at the world championships in Tokyo, placing fifth.

"I already had two bronze medals at worlds," Lysacek said. "I didn't want to play it safe. I wanted to land quads."

Appearing at the Chiller North in preparation for the upcoming show, he sat down to talk about skating.

Q: Were you a figure-skating fan as a child?

A: No, I was a big Chicago Blackhawks fan. We knew some friends who knew the Chris Chelios family, and I got a chance to meet him. That's why I got into hockey -- because I was so charged up meeting (future Hall of Famer) Chris Chelios.

I saw him a few years later at the opening of a skating rink, and I was still totally in awe.

Q: How did you become a figure skater, then?

A: The first time I was on hockey skates, I fell smack on my (butt). I couldn't even stand up; I had no skating ability.

I was told if I wanted to be a hockey player I should take some skating lessons. All I wanted to do was skate round and round really fast. I like anything that moves fast -- cars, bikes, whatever.

Q: Is it true you weren't a fan of skating costumes as a kid?

A: I made it to the National Junior Olympics by age 10 competing in a blue sweat suit and skating to music from Top Gun. After I made it, they said I would have to get a more professional costume.

I said, "No way."

I got myself a superhero outfit with this god-awful neon-yellow lightning bolt on the front and the back. I won the '96 Junior Olympics in that ugly costume.

Cut to 2007, and I won men's nationals in a Christian Dior costume. A lot has changed.

Q: Did you play any other sports as a kid?

A: I played basketball until I was 14. It was hard to compare playing in a tiny school gym to skating before an international audience in Sweden.

Q: What do you recall about your Olympic performance with the flu?

A: I got to the arena 25 minutes before my program. I had not warmed up at all. I just sat Indian-style on the floor. I went through my routine on muscle memory. I had nothing going on in my brain.

I remember Johnny (Weir) complaining that he hadn't got to the rink until an hour before his show. I was like "Dude, I didn't get there until 20 minutes before my performance and wore my costume on the bus."

Q: Have you seen Blades of Glory?

A: Yes. I thought it was good and funny. We spoke to Will Ferrell after the movie at a Hollywood premiere, and he told us a lot of their ideas came from watching our routines and press conferences.

Q: You describe men's figure skating as an "extreme sport," but do you see its image as still a work in progress?

A: People tell me sometimes that it's a girlie sport. Well, in my fifth hour of training, when my lungs are burning and I have a gash on my knee and I've hit my head on the ice, I don't think it's a girlie sport.

I'd rather be running up and down a football field and being tackled by a linebacker. That seems easier than what we're doing.

treed@dispatch.com