I have a lot of weird hobbies… so in addition to writing songs, I also love watching sports… not all sports – just certain ones – usually the more girly, off kilter disciplines like figure skating, gymnastics, and tennis. When I was a little girl, one of my best friends was a serious figure skater so I used to go and watch her practice and compete and it was so exciting and I got hooked. Of course, that was around the time of the whole Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding ice scandal (side note: so much innocence was lost there!) so it was quite addictive. Anyway, since that time, my ears always perk up when the Olympics happen, although I must admit, I haven’t been following it as closely as I used to. I guess it’s because I haven’t loved or identified with an ice skater (male or female) since Michelle Kwan, who dominated the sport for 10+ years. Anyway that drought ended with the fantastic Johnny Weir, who has been on the scene for several years now – winning the US National championship for 3 years straight and competing in the last Olympics (placing 5th).
This year there’s been a lot of publicity around Johnny and most of it focuses on his amazing, extroverted personality, which is a double edged sword. Johnny is a character and has charmed me to high heaven (and I haven’t even met him). He can create the most amazing quote or sound byte off the top of his head. The downside is that his huge personality sometimes distracts us from his awe inspiring skating. He’s struggled to maintain his edge in skating since 2007, and many Americans looked to his rival (and newly minted Olympic champ) Evan Lysechek as the great hope for male figure skating. But Johnny was always the character everyone was talking about. In preparation for the Vancouver Olympics a documentary Johnny Weir: Pop Star on Ice was released as well as a recent reality format show on the Sundance Channel called Be Good Johnny Weir. Both are great. Here’s a clip.
So now we get to the Men’s Olympic competition this week. Coming into it, Johnny wasn’t considered to be a contender for medals, but he still got a lot of attention and press due to his costumes, personality and the fact he was rooming with the ice dancer Tanith Belbin. What unfolded both last Tuesday and Thursday was that Johnny came on to the ice and BROUGHT IT, performing two close to flawless programs! He was really spot on. While his jumps weren’t as difficult as the frontrunners, he was hard to ignore. The judges felt differently and put him in 6th place overall, finishing after 3 skaters who had fallen during their skates. This is was crushing, especially since it seemed like a lot of it was due to their blatant homophobia and belief that Johnny should tone down his antics off the ice. I was shouting at the TV and really enraged at the outcome, although happy for Lysecheck. Watch experts including Olympic Silver Medalists Elvis Stojko and Sasha Cohen coming out in Johnny’s defense saying he was robbed of the bronze medal.
The good news is that maybe he can turn all of this controversy into a new career in fashion for himself.
All these people agree with me – Johnny WAS ROBBED!!!
Sundance Channel article – vote for yourself on who should have won
Awesome article in the Telegraph
Johnny skates to “Poker Face”
I agree too! Weir was definitely underscored, he skated well and was one of the most artistic guys out on the ice. He’s definitely got a bright future ahead of him beyond skating.
I completely disagree with Stojko about Plushenko deserving gold. Yes he hit a quad, but the rest of his performance wasn’t really all that. His spins, landings, and transitions didn’t look anywhere near as good as Lysacek’s. It’s called figure skating, not “do as many quads as you can” skating. Evan completely deserved the gold.