Johnny Weir Announces His Return to Competitive Figure Skating

Update:  Please read Misfit Mimes' blog 'Unstoppable'!  Wonderful in it's simplicity and the beautiful photo of Johnny and Vitya!

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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

Read my friend Nancy Knisley's blog 'The Quotable Johnny Weir'

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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

11 hours ago

The Tweet in question:

And one more Tweet for the road:

Along with my response:

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What Can I Say About the Lack of USFSA Support for Johnny Weir?

Originally posted in July on another Blog.  I needed a copy to link to that is more public, because the other Blog is now 'friends only', so this is why it is being posted here now!

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I decided to write this blog to talk about the lack of support Johnny Weir has received over the years from the United States Figure Skating Association, better known as the USFSA. I have been working on it for a while; however for some reason I really can not seem to express it as eloquently as I would like. Therefore I decided to go head with what I already have and express it as best I can.

This is not the first time this issue has been talked about, and it certainly will not be the last. In a June 27, 2010 blog via the Sundance Channel Johnny Weir looks back at the Olympics: Fortius Altius Maximus, Johnny himself addressed the issue of his lack of support from his own federation. He stated

'At the Olympics, the US figure skating team is overseen by five main officials, a team leader, two assistant team leaders, a doctor and physiotherapist who are supposed to share responsibilities and at least one is to be present for every practice, event, press conference, drug test and so on for every single athlete. As a precursor to my event and the support I could expect to receive from my own team, not one team official showed up to my final official practice that night. Not one.'

This was recently discussed in a skating forum I am a member of. Of course it upsets a lot of people, and rightfully so. However, there were a couple members who responded by suggesting it was no big deal and how did we know skating officials showed up at other team members' practices? My response was that to my knowledge officials HAD shown up at other skaters' practices and events, but that it wasn't Johnny Weir's job to monitor that; and he was pointing out that this is a rule the USFSA has that they failed to follow in relation to him. The USFSA breaking their own rules is yet another example of Weir's own skating federation's lack of support of him.

It's hard to believe the USFSA, or any other skating federation out there, felt they could only support one athlete, and that it was appropriate to almost completely ignore another one as happened with Johnny Weir. This is not something that has only happened recently, or even something that has only happened since his problems in Torino in 2006. Almost from the time Johnny Weir showed up on the skating scene he has never had the full support of the USFSA. Former figure skating judge Jon Jackson stated the USFSA had never supported Johnny Weir, and they weren't going to support him in Vancouver either.

Even though Johnny Weir is a three time United States Figure Skating Champion he has been left off of literature and brochures picturing team members more than once. In 2007 there was no mention of him at all in any of the USFSA's officical literature. We are talking about a three time national champion here, and there is really no excuse for him to have been treated the way he was. Also in 2007 Johnny was forced to attend Champs Camp in Colorado Springs and miss five shows that would have paid him enough to pay his rent for a year. He understood why he had to go, and even said he learned some useful information; however other skaters were allowed to miss the camp including Evan Lysacek who was allowed to meet with sponsors instead of attending.

In 2008 Johnny Weir won the only United States medal at the World Championships from any American skater, and as far as the USFSA was concerned, it was like he did not even exist.

This breathtaking lack of support certainly continued into 2010, and includes the USFSA's Readers' Choice Figure Skater of the Year award for which fan voting concludes on July 15th, 2010. While Johnny Weir is certainly listed as one of the candidates because he is eligible, he again is not pictured on the website.

Though Johnny lacked support from his own federation he still managed to retain some standing with the international judges, even as the lack of support from his own federation damaged his international reputation.

It's possible the United States Figure Skating Association now regrets their decision not to support Johnny Weir. Despite the fact Weir can, by his own admission, be difficult to deal with; it's hard for fans to understand why he could not be supported along with the other skaters at least a little. He has a large fan base, and gained many new fans after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, not only for how he skated; but also for how he responded to his placing, and to the comments made about him by broadcasters in Quebec and Australia. The USFSA looks bad for not supporting Weir, and it's hard to explain to parents who might want to put their children in figure skating why he has been treated the way he has by his own skating federation.

I am including video of the press conference Johnny and his agent Tara Modlin gave in Vancouver in response to some comments made about him by two commentators from Quebec. Johnny himself never brought up the lack of support in relation to this issue, but some of his fans have. While people like Olympic Champion Dorothy Hamill were there, a fan pointed out after Johnny's blog was published that no USFSA official had been at the press conference, and no official statement of any kind was made in support of Johnny Weir after these and other comments were made about him in particular. I'm sure he must have thought about what he was going to say beforehand, but there's no way he could have known for certain what questions he would be asked, and yet he still responded in such a spontaneous, intelligent and beautiful way. Johnny Weir is far more eloquent than those commentators or any of the other haters could ever hope to be. Six days after the men's competition and the sixth place finisher had over a hundred press people show up for a press conference regarding an attack on him personally, not his skating. And I think all the reporters went away impressed.

It is unfortunate that, while Johnny Weir can count on support from his family, friends and fans, he can NOT count on support from his own skating federation.




Short version of Johnny Weir's Vancouver press conference in response to comments made about him by two Quebec broadcasters:
Short Version of Press Conference


The entire press conference beginning to end:

Johnny Weir Press Conference

Part One of Press Conference




Part Two of Press Conference




Part Three of Press Conference