READING, Pa. -- Linked by their first national championships, Kimmie Meissner and Evan Lysacek are separated by their viewpoints as they head to Skate America.
Meissner, the 2006 world champion who won the U.S. crown in January, not only knows who her main competition will be at the first Grand Prix series event, but she's eager to see how they are doing.
Lysacek won't be looking at anyone else's performances when the men get started Friday.
"We get wrapped up in the skating world with 'I want to go beat this person.' That is a terrible mentality to have," the 22-year-old Lysacek said. "You have to really know in your head you can beat anyone out there as long as have the right frame of mind.
"I cannot single out one person to beat; just go out and try to beat everyone out there."
That's exactly how he approached nationals in Spokane, Wash., last winter. Lysacek had two bronze medals at the world championships and a fourth at the Olympics on his resume, but no U.S. titles. With the proper mind-set at last, he blew away the field for his first American championship.
"I had the right attitude going into nationals: 'I don't care who is here and who they are and what they have done. I want to go out and do what I am capable of. I want to go out and have the idea that I can be my very best.'"
It will be the same in Reading. Although Lysacek is aware of who is entered -- only Japan's Daisuke Takahashi, the 2005 Skate America winner is likely to push him -- he wants it to be irrelevant.
And he wants to carry that approach through the season, which includes Cup of China as his other Grand Prix event, then on to nationals in St. Paul, Minn., in January, and the world championships in Goteburg, Sweden, in March.
"I'm definitely fresh," Lysacek said. "After nationals, which was a fulfilling moment for me. I waited 12-13 years for that, and once it was over I didn't have a second to soak it in.
"Then came Four Continents, and it's 'you have to do your best ever all over again.' Then I need a repeat of it at worlds.
"I sort of feel like that was a special moment at nationals I don't want to create every single time. It would lose its luster. I am not going to expect perfection from myself every time out."
Nor does Meissner, whose performance in Spokane hardly was as spectacular as Lysacek's. Then again, Meissner had a defining moment a month after the Turin Olympics, putting out one of the best free skates of recent years to grab the world title as a 16-year-old.
