At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Lysacek placed second in the short program, with a score of 90.30 without quadruple jumps. He won the free skate with a score of 167.37 and won the gold medal overall with a total score of 257.67, a margin of 1.31 over silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko. He became the first American to win the Olympic title in men's singles since Brian Boitano in 1988, and the first reigning world champion to win since Scott Hamilton in 1984.