Like so many of us who were not born in California, Evan Lysacek came here to pursue a golden dream.
That dream came true Thursday night in front of an adoring, flag-waving crowd at Staples Center, thousands of people rising as one while he pumped his fists in delighted disbelief at the end of his free skate program.
Still, he was not the world figure skating champion then. Not quite. His triumph was not sure for another few minutes, until the last skater, preliminary leader Brian Joubert of France, tripped over his toe pick on a double axel and took a head-first dive onto the ice.
When Joubert's scores were displayed it became official that Lysacek had won the gold, his first time atop the world podium and the first U.S. man to stand there since Todd Eldredge prevailed in 1996. No overnight success this, not nearly.
No easy triumph, either.
After skating on a sore left foot for nearly five months, Lysacek learned a few weeks ago that he had a stress fracture.
"I knew I wasn't going to do a quad. The doctor told me it wasn't going to happen," said Lysacek, who was third at the U.S. championships in January.
"I had to figure out how to make every element as strong as possible."
And so he did, even though artistry had never been his strong point.
He brought everything he could out of his Gershwin program Thursday, putting out solid triple jumps, deft footwork and the spins he had spent a week refining with master choreographer Lori Nichol.
He had the top long program score -- 159.53 points -- for an overall total of 242.23, nearly five points ahead of runner-up Patrick Chan of Canada and more than six points ahead of Joubert, the 2007 world champion.
"When I stepped into the building tonight I felt really nervous. I had sort of the wrong type of thought, like, 'This is going to be so difficult,' " said Lysacek, who so badly wanted to train here with renowned coach Frank Carroll that he left his suburban Chicago home shortly after his high school graduation in 2003.
"Then I had a moment of clarity. I told myself what I have to do is so simple: I have to do what I've been doing every day in training, just go out there and perform the way I'd imagined it hundreds of times.
"I had a moment in my footwork where I had this weird look of shock on my face because it was happening the way I imagined."
