Vote for Johnny Weir as 'Best Improv Ice Skater'!
One vote per person per day.
Voting ends on January 31st, 2012.
The “Best Improv-Ice Skater” will be announced during Pandora Unforgettable Moments of Love on Ice on Saturday, February 4, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. EST on NBC.
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Ever since Johnny Weir announced in late 2010 he was taking a year off from competitive figure skating his fans have been wondering if he would return to competition. The 2014 Olympics are set to take place in Sochi; a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, on the coast of the Black Sea. Any fan of Johnny's knows how much he loves the Russian culture and the Russian people, and the feeling is mutual. These factors would seem to influence his decision on whether to try and make the 2014 Olympic team or not.
There is also a sense of unfinished business where Johnny Weir and the Olympics are concerned.
Weir, though he did not perform badly at Torino in 2006, faltered and failed to win the Olympic medal he so desired. The next four years were up and down for Weir competitively, and he fell out of favor with the United States Figure Skating Association. There was no love lost between the organization and Weir; however, he performed well enough at the 2010 U.S. Championships in Spokane, Washington to qualify for the United States Olympic Team and competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Washington.
Any fan of Weir's knows what happened next. After performing a near perfect short program titled 'I Love You, I Hate You', Weir performed a stunningly beautiful long program he had named 'Fallen Angel'. He had placed sixth after the short program, and he remained in sixth place after his Fallen Angel free skate. While some believe the placings were fair, many figure skating fans were shocked at Johnny Weir placing sixth in Vancouver. Without going too heavily into the politics of figure skating, the hurtful comments made about Weir and any other issues involved; Weir's sixth place finish was extremely difficult to understand for many figure skating fans.
Since the Vancouver Olympics, Johnny Weir has absolutely thrived. He has skated in numerous figure skating shows, appeared on talks shows and at events, written an autobiography and embarked on a book tour, designed a line of ladies dresses, released a single titled 'Dirty Love', been interviewed and photographed numerous times including for the JW Art Project, appeared at fashion shows and walked runways at New York Fashion Week, become the face of 'Glitter and Ice' for Mac Cosmetics, and filmed season two of his reality show 'Be Good Johnny Weir'. And that list is only part of what he has been up to in the last two years!
Oh yeah... There was that little thing about getting married on New Year's Eve to the wonderful Victor Voronov!
But back to the unfinished business...
As a long time fan of Johnny Weir there are few things I would like more for him than for him to have the Olympic medal I feel he so richly deserves. I'd love to see him compete and make the team in Sochi and just show everyone for the umpteenth time just how good he really is. I do have concerns, however. He's never been a favorite of the figure skating establishment, and that is unlikely to change any time soon. The current scoring system does not favor a skater with the artistic brilliance he possesses, though he can certainly hold his own technically. And of course, he IS a three time United States champion.
He'll be twenty nine years old in Sochi; not old in human terms, but certainly not young in competitive figure skating terms. However, I'm a fan and I will support him in whatever he decides to do... And as a friend of mine on Facebook said, figure skating desperately needs Johnny Weir. At a time when the sport is in a slump, at least partly due to the convoluted judging system and the near robotic state skaters, especially male skaters, are forced into to score enough points to win; as I stated above, Weir is thriving. He is enormously popular, possibly the single most popular skater around the world; and yes, competitive figure skating DOES need him. However, as another friend stated, HE doesn't need IT.
Now that I've said those words... Oh Wednesday, January 18th, Johnny tweeted his fans these words:
"Coming to you guys tomorrow with some BIG news! Life is funny & it can change in a second. Cherish it all. The good & the bad."
This tweet caused an enormous amount of buzz amongst Johnny's fans, some of whom speculated for hours on Twitter and other sites about what Johnny could possibly mean by that. Obviously it was something good, right? But the tone of the rest of the tweet...the good the bad? What on earth did THAT mean?
Well, we found out Thursday, January 19th 2012 when Johnny Weir announced his return to competitive figure skating!
After releasing an official statement about his comeback, Johnny appeared at a press conference at which he announced his plans to return to competitive skating with an eye toward making the 2014 Olympic team and competing in Sochi. He will retire for certain after the next Olympics.
Almost immediately skating fans, especially Johnny's fans, were abuzz with talk of his competitive return. Within a very short period of time a number of articles had already been written, many of them from major journalistic entities such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, ESPN and the New York Times. More are certain to follow.
All I can say at this point is, GO JOHNNY GO!
VIDEO of his twenty minute press conference may be found here and here! (I can't figure out how to embed it, so leave me alone about it, okay?)
I have also posted sixteen photographs from his press conference. He looks great, doesn't he? Beautiful smile and I love the hair!
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 19: Figure skater Johnny Weir announces his competitive figure skating comeback at a press conference at West Bank Cafe on January 19, 2012 in New York City. (Photos by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
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Read my friend Misfit Mimes blog 'The Official Johnny Weir Blog'! She rocks!
Johnny Weir on Twitter
Johnny Weir's Official Website
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@JohnnyGWeir tweet:
The moment I tweeted you all from my press conference about my comeback as captured by @andrewwerner http://yfrog.com/ob15469868j
The Tweet in question:
And one more Tweet for the road:
Along with my response:
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