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Johnny WeirWeir Braces for a Run at National Title #4December 24, 2006 KB: Most of the top American skaters did the Champions On Ice tour last summer, which in an Olympic year is historically much longer than the regular tour. Right now, you, Evan Lysacek, and Belbin and Agosto are injured, and all of you had to withdraw from the Grand Prix Final in Russia. Does touring for so long create a double-whammy problem of too much traveling on the road combined with a lack of real training? JW: Champions was something like 78 cities this year, a long, long tour. I'm always so excited to go on tour and just have fun and be with a lot of people that I see all year, but never actually get to hang out with. It's always exciting. I knew that skating in shows all summer wasn't the most favorable thing for me right then, in terms of getting in shape for the competitive season, and I wasn't happy with that. But, at the same time, I can't say 'no' to that kind of money, or even afford to skip part of the tour. That kind of work - and money - can really change your life and I had a contract to do the entire tour. In the beginning I was excited to be rehearsing, and not having to be competing and always practicing my hardest elements. I was just happy to be with everybody. I was expecting the other skaters to have issues with each other on the tour, but by the end it was kosher and we all got along, no animosity. It really was a family environment as opposed to cliques fighting it out amongst each other. The tour takes a lot out of you: different hotels everyday, planes, buses; the same tedious numbers skated over and over and over again. In terms of training, you do not get a lot of on-ice time, only about a 30-minute practice before the show, and then 30 seconds for the opening number. During the show I had my number, and then the finale, so, not a lot of training. I definitely got heavier, which was hard. I like to stay slim to be able to jump better and perform my elements, and I was trying to get a plan going for the season. KB: And that plan ended up as the creation of a new style and new choreography from 2002 Olympic ice dance champion Marina Anissina? JW: Yes, and that was good as were on tour together and could work randomly as we needed to. Yet, the tour is work - it's a job everyday - and it does take away from what you plan to do for the competitive season. I also worked during the breaks. It may not have been the best decision I could have made, but it's the one I made and I stand behind it. This season is important. I can only speak for myself, but it's important that I'm showing two new programs this season and not sticking with old ones - at least so far. I'm changing my style, and this makes it a lot harder for me. Two brand new programs, and only one month post-tour to get ready for my first major event. There has just not been a lot of time, and basically I've been playing 'catch up' all year. There is no way I can compare myself, for example, to what the Japanese guys are doing. When I was in Japan in July, I could see how ready they were with full daily run-throughs of their competitive long programs. Even Evan (Lysacek) could do his long program run-throughs on the tour everyday last summer because he was using his old one. I'm so very much behind everyone else, and it's disappointing, and I am frustrated. KB: You're really beloved in Japan and have a huge amount of blog sites devoted to you there. Can you expand on that July event? JW: I was going though a rough patch in my personal life when I took the trip to Japan, so I asked my best friend, Paris, if he would accompany me and he was there in a second. It was fun to have him there, and we flew to Tokyo several days before anyone else arrived, so we went sightseeing and shopping and basically turned it into a mini-vacation. It started out great and I had so much fun. Naturally I was very excited to skate for the Japanese audience because they are so supportive of me. The event, Dreams On Ice, was four shows over three days, at an arena in Shin Yokohama. I knew I had a lot of fans in Japan, but it was shocking - they are so generous with their support - and give so many gifts and flowers. There were fans following me in taxis, waiting in the hotel lobby, always around taking photos and asking for autographs. So much that you feel like a rock star over there, and when you have that kind of support, you actually skate better because the fans create such a good environment. KB: Japan is a different world than America. What impressions did you glean from their culture? JW: I'd only previously competed in Japan twice, for NHK in 2004 and the Japan International Challenge in 2005. Considering I'm not Japanese, and I don't have a huge world ranking or 'big results', it's amazing the sheer amount of fan support that I receive. In the scheme of things, I only have high U.S. rankings, yet they are so kind to me and always there to help with anything from directions to suggestions on where to eat. It's very cool. I love the country and in Tokyo, Harajuku was my favorite part of the city. It's a funky young part of town and I love to explore as much as I can when traveling. I got to see a lot of Japanese shops and fashions, different restaurants, and all of the sorts of things that you miss when doing the usual 'hotel to bus to arena, and back again' routine. I love the Japanese customs and way of life, and it is so shockingly different than ours. Everyone is polite, nobody closes a door on you, and they have toilets that clean your rear-end. Even the toilets are polite (laughing)! I try to immerse myself a bit when traveling to a foreign culture, or take a custom with me, so I started bowing by the end of my trip to show that I appreciated their support. KB: Most people think that life on tour is glamorous, and in some respects it is, but share a little about the grunge side of it. JW: Well, being a skater on tour is nothing like being a pop star or NBA star. We stay in great hotels, and we get good seats on planes, but we also travel by bus a lot which can be hard, yet fun because at least we're all together. You can shop everyday as you're making good money compared to any other summer job someone my age might have. You see all the big cities and it's all very exciting - something the average person doesn't get to do everyday - but you're still in a strange city all the time. The other end of the tour spectrum is that we all know every little thing about each other (laughing). Every good thing, bad thing, and anything you can pick on. You tend to even know people's bathroom schedule. You catch the pimple on their face, I mean nothing is private. If someone is having 'issues' at home, everyone knows about it. You're away from your regular life for so long that things can fall apart, they don't get tended to, and you can't be there to fix it. A tour brings a lot of good, but also a lot of downsides. The biggest grind is being achingly tired getting off a bus after driving all night and having only three hours to sleep before you have to get up, perform, and do it all over again. You don't have a real handle on your life, and things can just sort of go away. Don't get me started on the food. KB: This is the post-Olympic season, so one could say that perhaps results don't matter that much this year as the big prize has passed and won't come along again until 2010. Did that contribute to your reason to use new programs designed from someone unknown as a choreographer? JW: Marina Anissina and I knew each other from last year's tour, and actually we weren't close then. This year for some reason, right away from the start, we started going out to eat together and having deep conversations about life, love, food, and face masks. We bonded really quickly, and I felt I could turn to her. One night I decided I would like to work with her as a choreographer and that's how it started. Originally I wanted Tatiana Tarasova to do my programs and have Marina work jointly with us, because I wasn't sure Marina was ready to act solo as a choreographer. I hadn't seen any of her work. KB: What changed your mind? JW: I called Tatiana (Tarasova) and she didn't want me to work with Marina at all. Instead, she wanted me to work with herself and Alexander Zhulin. I have nothing against Zhulin, but I really wanted to work with Marina and Tatiana and I disagreed. Also, logistically I couldn't just up and go to Russia to make new programs. It was convenient that Marina was there with me on the tour, and it was a good thing to work with someone who was a friend. Sometimes she would baby me because of our friendship, but in the end we made two really good programs. I just haven't skated them to their full capacity, yet. KB: Any hard feelings from Tarasova over this? JW: I don't think so. In the end it comes down to money. No matter how much you care about someone, it comes down to money. I think it was good financially for Tarasova and Zhulin to want to make my new programs, because let's be honest, everyone is working with Nikolai Morozov. The only high level skaters Marina had worked with were the U.S. dance team Loren Galler-Rabinowitz and David Mitchell, and she had never worked with a singles skater. Tatiana said Marina definitely weren't ready for a singles skater, but one year ago she said the same thing about Zhulin. KB: There may have been an element of truth in that last year. Zhulin's focus - his obsession really - was getting the Olympic gold medal for his wife's ice dance team. Now he's more of a free agent. JW: There are also other considerations. The Russians all have a lot of students, clients, coming to them for new numbers and it's to the point that people can see a program and go, "Oh, that's a Tarasova", or "That's a Morozov number", and they start to get similar and look the same. I wasn't exactly afraid of that happening to me, because unlike some skaters, I take a very active say in what I do. I don't just have someone choose the music, choreograph a program, and then deliver it to me. I think a lot of Nikolai's students have him package them totally, and I'm not that way. I'm not afraid of being like anyone else in that respect because I'm conscious of it and I won't let it happen. KB: Let's talk about your health. Sometimes this past year at competitions, you've appeared, frankly, tired. Is it just normal training-related fatigue or have there been other problems? JW: I allegedly had mononucleosis during the Torino Olympics and I say 'allegedly' because I didn't know about it until shortly after starting the Champions On Ice tour last Spring. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with me so they finally did a blood test and it clearly indicated that I was in the end stages of recovery from mono. I didn't even know (laughs), because while competing at the Olympics, of course I expected to be tired, but I didn't expect to be that tired. Training for the Games you get run down, and I was so busy over in Italy that it seemed logical. When I came home and the exhaustion continued, and then I had the World championships, it was just too much. I had to deal with the media, cameras in my face, and the pressure of trying my first quad in competition (which I did), and then go straight to rehearsals and start the tour. There simply was no vacation or rest. No time to decompress and go to an island and pamper myself. I have been working straight through since August of 2005 and can't stop because there are so many commitments to fulfill. At the same time, I'm happy to do it as I don't like to be idle or bored. Once I was on the tour last Spring, I started to get better, however I also started gaining weight from all the restaurant food, the room service, the going out every night to dinner and enjoying a few glasses of wine. In no time I put on fifteen pounds. KB: That's hard to believe. You've always looked really lean, where did you carry those extra pounds? Besides, you can't trust some hotel scale. JW: I weighed myself one day, I forget what city but it was someplace in the middle of the country (laughing), and it was horrible! It was in a hotel gym. My weight distribution was okay, but when I get extra weight, I can feel it in my bones - the way my shoulders work when I jump, and the way (laughs) my jeans don't fit. The weight took more wear on my body, so that by the time I came home to Delaware and started on my seasonal diet to prepare for the upcoming competitions, it was just that much harder. I'd never had an opportunity to be that much heavier, but I dropped the weight quickly. I had been used to having extra 'oomph' or energy to pull me around and I really needed the weight off. The tour ended the middle of August and one month later, I'd dropped about eighteen pounds. On me it may not have looked like that much of a gain because even with the extra pounds you could still see my ribs, but I'm conscious about what I eat. KB: What about the times on the tour you weren't so conscious about it? What do you really like to chow down on when nobody's looking? JW: I like cheesecake, fries, anything bad for you. A really decadent dessert I had was at the Clift in San Francisco, a really cool luxury hotel. They had the most immense desserts, especially this one called (laughing), "The Bay of Pigs". It's like a thirty-dollar ice cream sundae meant for six people that I ordered from room service for myself. It looked like a giant banana split with eight different ice creams, nuts, chocolate, marshmallows, the works - even a sugar cane crystal designed in the shape of something beautiful like an ivy leaf - I mean just decadent. When it arrived I sat in my robe and slippers just staring at it for five minutes, and then…I was face down in it. KB: After an indulgence like that did you think, "That's okay - I'll just wear it off tomorrow?" JW: No (laughing), I just went to bed and snored. The "Bay of Pigs" was a thoughtless purchase, like the 80th piece of Louis Vuitton. But I woke up happy. KB: Overall, how would you rate your present condition? JW: I'm thin now, which is fine. My clothes fit, and in general I can jump well. Why I look so tired in competition and why it appears I'm having issues is because I am. Every other week or so I'm flying to an event, with no time to stop and train and fall down and recover. It's hard to compete when you're always so high and can never come down. I feel like I'm always doing a crash course preparation for one thing or another, and just don't have the time to play it safe and work less. I'm continuously playing catch-up. It's go-go-go with no time to rest or recuperate, and its been this way for the last year and a half. My body is tired. KB: Some people, even loyal fans, criticize your extra-curricular events - the things you do away from the ice. They say it takes precious time away from what you should be doing: training. Yet, when I saw you at Fashion Week it was quickly apparent that everything you do is built around your training schedule. You didn't leave for New York until after your regular daily practice session ended. The next day you walked in the show, and then rushed to get on a train (missing the after party) to make it back home for morning practice. Do you think you balance it all? JW: It was a huge honor to be a part of the Heatherette fashion show. A lot of models wait their whole career to walk the main tent at New York's Fashion Week, and it was a big privilege for me. When I first got the invitation, I wanted to do it no matter what, unless it was during the Grand Prix, which it wasn't. It truly was a whirlwind event. There were so many famous people floating around backstage, and it was just an experience I didn't want to miss. Someday I want to work in fashion and working that show was a part of what I hope to do in the future. I've had a lot of offers to do more, for instance: see collections, model for magazines, do promotional work for companies, etc., and I've turned a lot of it down because I have to balance what I can get from it right now compared to what I can get from skating. Right now skating is my work and it's my main priority. But to walk the show was great. It was difficult squeezing myself into those jeans made for women (laughs), because I have a skater butt made for falling on ice. I didn't trip. The girl I walked with was sweet, if a bit tipsy (laughs), and it was nice to have my friends and my Mom there. Paris got to attend the after party for me! KB: Any other spectacular celebrity events coming up? JW: In February, I'll be going to Elton John's Academy Awards party. It will be a lot of fun and it's between Nationals and Worlds, so I can fit it in. I'll miss one day of skating, but that's only three hours, so not a huge loss, because I'm planning for it. If I did that every week it would catch up eventually, but one day every few months I think I'm entitled to. KB: How do you get on Elton John's radar? JW: I have no idea. At a skating event in Harlem, Kelly Ripa came over and told me how much she liked me. Rosie O'Donnell sends me emails when things are down telling me to keep my chin up. Kathy Griffin called between my two Grand Prix events to invite me to a party because she really wanted to introduce me to some people. It's so interesting to have these celebrity connections and to have these famous people contact me. I was told that Elton John tried to get me for last year's party, but I never received the invitation until I was back from Nationals and I missed the event. This year they invited me way in advance so I'll be able to go. (Laughs) I'm bringing Paris. We'll network and have fun. Who knows? This kind of stuff could be a once in a lifetime event so it's something I want to do and be a part of. It seems like a big deal, but in a way you're just going to see your friends. KB: Let's talk about the competitive season so far. You took the bronze medal at Skate Canada, and then got the silver at Cup or Russia. Unfortunately, you had to withdraw mid-event from the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg. Take us through Skate Canada first. JW: Strangely, at both of my events - Skate Canada and Cup of Russia - I wanted to win. I wanted to start an empire and win everything I entered this season. That's going to have to wait until Nationals and Worlds, hopefully. Skate Canada I was not prepared for; even my costume wasn't finished until the day before I left. I hadn't done a lot of long program run-throughs, and I really wasn't sure what elements I would do. That was very stressful. The short program, King of Chess, was much better. I was not ready to win an international competition and that was frustrating. However, the decisions and the choices that left me in the position of being late to being ready were my own. It was my first time out with the Child of Nazareth free skate and I made mistakes. I don't get to test things out in small sectional or regional events anymore. Now when I debut something, it's televised around the world. I didn't have an entire summer to work on it and get the program fine-tuned, so I definitely was not 'at one' with it. I took the bronze and it was a big gift to get even third. KB: After some negative placements there over the years, were you beginning to get superstitious about even competing in Canada? JW: I've had a lot of emotions about Canada. After continuously getting 7th place there, regardless of the event, yes, I was superstitious about it. I sure didn't want to get 7th again. I did not deliver a nice debut of my long program, and I had really wanted to skate well as I'm Marina's guinea pig. A highpoint was the Canadian crowd because they love the sport and it's great to have a full arena. Their journalists and I don't get along that well (laughs). Obviously they aren't out to paint that rosy of a picture of an American competitor, so I don't get any favors from them. I remember doing an interview, and some reporter was just listening in on it and suddenly asked if I'd been brainwashed this season because I wasn't "saying crazy cuckoo things". I love to perform in Canada because the audience is so highly knowledgeable. Yet, because I'm similar to Emanuel Sandhu and Jeffrey Buttle's level, that gets taken into consideration with the media. KB: Next you got to meet Brian Joubert at Cup of Russia who made history as the first man to land three quads in one program, under the new scoring system. JW: I had about two weeks at home to get ready. People forget that when you compete overseas it's hard with the time changes. You arrive, the next day is practice, then the short program, and then the free skate. You're so jet lagged your legs are back somewhere over Greenland. It was the first time Marina came to accompany me at an event - to be at the boards with Priscilla (Hill), my coach. The short went reasonably well, and the long was better than Skate Canada, but still not where it needed to be. I wasn't expecting to be rejuvenated by two weeks of training at home, wasn't expecting any miracles, and both Marina and Priscilla actually expected me to do worse. So, I felt like a winner because I exceeded their expectations, and came in second place with silver. But my score was so far away from Brian Joubert who landed three quads. That is such a crazy thing to accomplish. KB: You and Joubert could not have more opposite physiques. Is it frustrating for you to look at someone like him who has so much mass and muscle power and wonder how are you ever going to jump at his stratospheric level? JW: Body differences are a trade-off. It's easier to have the power to jump when you're shorter or more muscular and stockier, but with that can come a hard time hitting certain positions and elements. I mean let's face it - in ladies they don't even give the muscular girls a chance, they're all waifs. My perception at least, is that I have a very strong technique on the jumps. Some guys might be stronger, but they don't necessarily have the technique. I don't have brute strength. I can't hurl myself into the air, which is not pretty anyway but works for those who can. And I would imagine that for someone, like Brian (Joubert) for example, that it is a huge weight off your shoulders to know that you can just reel those jumps off when you need them. Personally, I like the jumps to be pretty and well-executed, and not with arms and legs flying everywhere. I want a triple to look like a double. But to address Brian specifically, I have talked to knowledgeable people who say he's been training intensely. He's also built the way he is, and he has good technique. Someday hopefully I'll do the same thing. At Cup or Russia, I skated before him, so I didn't know how far the points spread would be, I certainly didn't predict it would be that amazing. His practices were good, but not that good (laughs). His accomplishment is very impressive and I have so much admiration for him to have the balls to even try three quads. He's in stellar shape and it will be interesting to see if he can keep that shape all the way through World's. After the event ended, Evgeni Plushenko laughed and said, "It was a good year to take a year off." KB: Then came the Grand Prix Final. You went into the event with two medals, skated the short program, and then withdrew. What happened? JW: After the Cup of Russia, I did a Christmas show on Long Island, then the televised pro-am event in Boston, flew home for one day and then right back to Russia, again. I arrived on a Wednesday, had practice on Thursday, and competed on Friday. I was beyond tired. The fatigue had set in because I hadn't had any time off, and I probably managed to sleep maybe ten hours over my entire stay in St. Petersburg. Priscilla and I were barely speaking before we left, but that's kind of par for the course. We kind of hate each other before we go anywhere (laughing). Upon arriving, it was great to see the support from the Russian fans. I had eight banners hanging in the arena. It's cool to have that kind of love come your way. The day of the short program, it took almost an hour and a half just to get to the arena, you're on this bus forever. When you arrive it's like a cattle chute being opened and you're one of the cattle running to get into the arena, and then do the quick change, get your make-up on, warm up, and finally skate. It was a strange warm-up, everyone was falling and then Evan (Lysacek) withdrew. I saw him do a double loop or something and then wince, but I didn't know anything was wrong. When I took the ice, I knew I wasn't really 'on', and that I was tired, but as soon as the music started I tried to get into character and did a huge great triple axel. After I landed, I stepped forward and somehow my feet got tangled. I was trying to emote and be the character that Marina had designed for me, and then all of a sudden I'm hitting the ice so hard, right on my hip, that I felt immobilized. It was so random. Even the audience didn't gasp. I went through the rest of the program, but on the next spin I could feel something was wrong with the right hip. Doing the circular steps I started to forget what I was doing and that, 'Oh crap, what is happening?' set in. Next I turned a triple into a double and by the time I hit the straight-line step sequence I was cooked, baked and done. I still don't know what steps I did. At that time my hip wasn't deathly sore, just enough to throw me off in my head because I couldn't figure out why it hurt so much from such a strange fall. The program ended, my low marks put me in last place, gotta love that (laughs), and by the time I was on the bus back to the hotel I could feel my hip tightening up more and more. I iced it and took some medication, but when I woke up at 4:00 AM and tried to stretch, I knew it was bad. I got up but couldn't walk so well, couldn't actually cross my legs. Then I was horrified because I if I couldn't cross my legs, I wasn't going to be able to jump at all. This was Russia, and the Grand Prix Final, and I really wanted to compete. At that day's practice I just couldn't put any weight on my leg, even while doing crossovers. It was clear it wasn't going to happen. When I jump, my left leg stays straight and my right leg crosses over and I rotate going clockwise, different than the majority of skaters who jump counterclockwise. So, my right leg is my take-off leg and my left is my landing one. Bruising your landing leg is a bit different than hurting your take-off leg because you can't get any power to even get airborne. Essentially I took a contusion to the hip, as if someone swung and hit it with a baseball bat. Not broken, not threatening to my career, but a major inconvenience. I withdrew, and it sucked. KB: And then it got worse. You were also scheduled to perform in the big outdoor show at Red Square two days after the Final ended. A truly fairy tale event, on ice created just for Red Square, under the shadows of St. Basil's cathedral and the Kremlin. What an experience to miss. JW: It was such an honor to be an American sportsman and be invited to take place at this historical show at Red Square. In addition to that, I was also scheduled to perform in two Ice Symphony galas on the 22nd and 23rd of December. These shows had an amazing cast of champions, and I had the honor of being the only U.S. skater to be included. Having to withdraw from not only the Grand Prix Final, but also from these Russian shows was just devastating. It was beyond my wildest dreams to perform in Red Square, and now I was going to have to call Ilia Auverbukh and cancel. A huge blow for me personally. Of course, everyone knows it's much easier to skate in a show than at a competitive event, but I would never disrespect the ISU by withdrawing out of a major event, and then pressing on and performing in shows a few days later to make money. It would be like spitting in their face. I couldn't do it. If there was any way I could have skated that free skate, I would have done so. KB: Would you say that sometimes skaters fake injuries, and that sometimes even their Federation or regulating authority is well aware of the situation? JW: In general, in sports and in skating, there are injuries. A lot of people will fake sometimes to get out of certain situations they'd rather not be in. They'll exaggerate or they'll even turn down a show claiming injury. Maybe they're tired, maybe they're unprepared. Anyone who knows me well or at the least has a real understanding of what I do, knows that I didn't pull out of the Final because I didn't want to skate. They would know that skating in Russia is one of my biggest joys in life. To compete there, to have the honor of taking part in a Grand Prix Final, and to have performed for Russian audiences is something I would never give away lightly. I would say that if you've ever fallen on ice and did NOT know it was coming - that you were going down - then you don't know what it's like. When you don't see it coming you can't brace yourself, and I'm very thin - my hips are pure bone - and I'll tell you, it hurts. It feels like things are ripping. I don't care if a it's a fan or an agent or a coach or a reporter, if anyone has accusation to make about me, then I would only ask that they first do this: think. I skated in the Olympics with mono, Evan (Lysacek) skated near death in Torino with fluids being pumped into him. There are things you can push through and things you cannot. There are athletes who have abused withdrawing and it's their right, but it can make it look bad for those who are truly injured. It makes us all look like liars. In general, why would be killing ourselves everyday, continually falling on hard ice every single day, if we didn't want to be champions? If we didn't want to compete? Is it that we just are not allowed to be injured? Are we tiny rhinestone-encrusted people (laughing) that just can't be allowed to say 'No'? How many pro football and basketball players don't make the big game because they hurt their finger? It took more for me to withdraw than it did to tough it out and compete. I knew I'd take heat for it. KB: There were many over-the-top negative remarks made about you in the press after the Olympics, but by the time this season rolled around I pretty much expected a clean slate of sorts. Yet, just a few months ago a respected newspaper at Skate America had this to say about you in a story bemoaning the decline of figure skating's popularity: "Three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir certainly isn't the answer. As the sport struggles…skating doesn't need a man, bare-chested, in a skirt and high heels, posing for magazine pictures as its image-maker." JW: If that sports writer feels the need to write about me, if he feels the need to research my pictures in high heels, then maybe he's preoccupied with me. I guess it's a back-handed compliment that as a sports writer he's researching me enough to know what I'm doing. Props (laughing) to him for following my career so closely! But seriously, I was a model for a day. I'm not for everyone, and I'm not trying to be everyone's role model. I don't have a problem with what people write because I stand behind everything I've done 100%. I say what I think and feel, but people can take every little word so literally. I think being intelligent and being able to speak eloquently is my downfall with the media sometimes. KB: Thoughts on the other competitors this season? JW: My favorite costume of the year goes to Russia's Maxim Shabalin for his free dance - fox fur, love it! Favorite lady so far is Miki Ando, and best Pairs are absolutely Shen and Zhao. I think my favorite other guy to watch is Thomas Verner from the Czech Republic. He's very interesting, even his hands are expressive and generally most people's hands die when they skate. He also makes good choices with music and choreography. I like Alexander Uspenski and Sergei Vornov. I think there is a lot of talent in the new Russian crop. It's an exciting time in figure skating - a lot of turnover - as if the sport got a chemical peel. KB: Is it hard on a personal level for someone to be involved with Johnny Weir? And do you think that what might be missing this season is, for lack of a better word, inspiration? JW: Yes, it's hard for someone to be involved with Johnny Weir. Because I'm crazy and I'm gone all the time, that's the real hard part. A lot of what I'll say is out there, but I'm also very private and in general I keep my private life to myself. I'm actually calm at home and with my friends, just chilling. I don't really have a personal life right now. If I get one it will be private and I won't talk about it, because anything I reveal will get picked apart. If I'm in love, people can see it on me, and if I get dumped, that also shows. When it comes to inspiration, if you're very happy with what is going on in your personal life, it does translate onto the ice. We're human. But if I have learned nothing else, I have come to see that you have to first be happy with yourself, and then you can bring someone else into your life. You have to be strong on our own. No one else can absorb the impact for you. When things off the ice are going poorly, then things can get into your head and affect your skating. Things sort of fell apart this summer. I wasn't doing well on a personal level, so I learned to disassociate that from the ice. You have to. As soon as the lights go down, then you can cry yourself to sleep, but on the ice you've got work to do. KB: Speaking of sleep, like your Mom, you suffer from insomnia. How's that going? JW: I don't sleep much, and in general have to be medicated. Of course, having these chemicals in me when I wake up in the morning to train is not the best thing, but I have to get at least some sleep. I've had problems with it since age 13. On the weekends I can actually sleep okay, but during the stress of the week I can't, and it definitely has an adverse affect on the ice. I'm particularly affected by it when I travel, even with medication. KB: When do you get your very best sleep? JW: When I'm full, when I don't have to get up and skate, and there's no big event looming on the horizon. KB: So with Nationals only a few weeks away ... JW: Yeah, Johnny's not sleeping anytime soon. |
Champions often say that it's easier to get to the top than to stay there. In just a few weeks reigning US men's champion Johnny Weir will either successfully defend his crown, or go down trying. Last season was the twenty-two year old's third consecutive title. If he manages one more, he'll tie American hero Brian Boitano's four consecutive national victories.