However, there is a relatively recently (1995) discovered 'small body' that has been officially named in honor of Johnny Weir!
Johnny has said more than once what wonderful fans he has; and after the New Now Next Awards he tweeted he had the most wonderful fans in the galaxy! Obviously his Russian fans, who had planned this well in advance of the NNN Awards as a birthday gift for Johnny's 26th birthday July 2, 2010; took the galaxy part of it to heart!
Along with a lot of technical information and the precise location of this 'small-body'; this statement appears on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Website:
12413 Johnnyweir Discovered 1995 Sept. 26 by T. V. Kryachko at the Engelhardt Observatory, Zelenchukskaya Station.
Johnny G. Weir (b. 1984) is an American athlete, figure-skating champion and Olympian, talented in many spheres of artistic endeavor. He is known for his unique skating style, outspokenness and love for Russian culture. The name was suggested by his Russian fan-site.
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This is a Minor Planet Johnny Weir 12413 video put together by Russian fans.
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Thanks to Li Mann at Facebook for this:
There is a new planet in the Universe...Planet Johnny Weir!
Johnny's Russian Angels at Johnny’s Russian Fan Site,
have named a minor planet in honor
of Johnny's Birthday.
Here's a Google translation of the beginning
of their page's announcement:
"MINOR PLANET JOHNNYWEIR 12413, The name of
figure skater Johnny Weir named minor planet
(asteroid) with the assistance of the Internet
community of fans on the eve of the birth of
an athlete on July 2. Astronomer Kryachko Timur,
one of the fan-club weir.ru, discovered the asteroid
in 1995, suggested naming it in honor of an athlete
and submitted a request to the Minor Planet Сenter
USA. To date, Johnny Weir is the only skater, a single
skater, named after a small planet. The official certificate
on behalf of a small planet signed an academician,
Nobel laureate Jaures Alferov and directories of the
Institute of Applied Astronomy RAS Andrei Finkelstein,
where it was issued. To view the detailed features
of the planet can be in the directory Johnnyweir NASA."
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You can translate the Russian Figure Skating news about this yourself here: Google Translate
Personally, I think this is one of the coolest and most incredible birthday presents I have ever heard of! Johnny's Russian fans, and indeed his fans all over the world, are incredible! Of course we are incredible! How could we not be? We follow one of the most talented, intelligent, articulate, poised, vulnerable, caring, goofy, crazy, unbelievable, special, soul baring, loving, smart alecky, gorgeous, outspoken, at times annoying but always intriguing, figure skaters/human beings in the universe! And now, thanks to his Russian fans, we can take the 'universe' part of it literally!
2 comments:
Sorry, but not the first skater.
Watch the video - katarinawitt is also a planet (mentioned in a visual pop-out in the video).
I'm aware he is not the only skater to have one of these named after him. I did not write that part, it is from the weir.ru fan page, part of a translation. I've seen the video and yes it does show Katarina Witt. Further down the page translation does mention Katarina (I just don't have all of it here), and I think the part above was probably just a mistranslation of what the page said.
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