Disaster for Johnny Weir | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Disaster for Johnny Weir

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
WeirsAngel said:
Two gold medals and one silver medal at GPs and gold at us nationals. What would you call those events if they weren't major?

And I do belive that he was in very bad pain after Skate Canada. Tell me one reason why he would cry if it wasn't because of that?

He's just human, like the rest of us. He says what's on his mind and that's what I call honest.
Thank you WeirsAngel for your comments.

As for his comments........I thought he was trying to make a point............get it.........we are all suppose to look alike.......get it......I don't want to...........we are all supposed to jump the same........get it......I don't want to.

If you watch Dance from Skate Canada they are looking so alike by using the same steps, that's why D&L were just breathtaking, they did it differently.

I don't think there is anything arrogant about Johnny, I'm just happy someone can say things they think. Do you know how tired I am of hearing ............well I'm just taking it slow and having fun out there. Let's have some action!!!

As for his reaction in the K&C, I don't think anyone can fault him for reacting as openly as he did. I just now respect him so much more. I would think what happened at Nationals bothered him more than we can even begin to imagine.

Dee
 

Kasey

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
jesslily said:
His high placement for the short, late skate for the long, and people who skated before him all did pretty good job gave him a lot of pressure, and he could not handle it. His injury was not that bad as he reacted on the ice and kiss&cry. Maybe he thought it was very serious.

How do you know? Who are any of us to judge how he reacted to being injured and in pain?

And as I responded in the other thread about this in the Skate Canada forum, I think Johnny is not the only person noticing a cloning of certain CoP-friendly moves. How many ladies were using a Beillmann position in spins or spirals last season? How many now? Whether they can acheive an aesthetically pleasing position with it or not? How many level 3 and level 4 spins by the men looking very similar, in very like positions. Surely it is not just Johnny who has noticed this, and is being perhaps frustrated by the irony that a system designed partly to reward the unique has created the clones.
 
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Linny

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
In the past

Perhaps John wasn't as much referring to the current male skaters but to the skaters on top as he was growing up. It was during his formative years that eh developed his style and his self image. Gotta admit Brian and Brian had a lot of similar traits. And then there was the long period of time where guys all wore ski-suit looking uniforms a la Scott Hamilton in his eligible days. Male singles skaters were pretty homogenous for awhile.

We are truly lucky to have guys like Johnny, Eman, Jeff, etc. bringing a new look to this branch of figure skating. Although I could do without flippy hanging things on the costumes (was that mag tape on Odo's top?) I do enjoy the colors and the unique looks they've been coming up with.

Pain - whole 'nother issue. Figure skating is one of fighting through pain, working through injury. Johnny is doing more than his share of that. Still, I wonder if there are techniques for learning to endure more. Perhaps some GS members who live with pain can explain how they manage.

Linny
 

Johar

Medalist
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
2003 Nationals--mens. Can someone refresh my memory of what happened to Weir? I know he did slam into the boards and lied there for a few minutes. But something happened to him before.
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Soogar I agree with your statement-
"Weir is one of the boring skaters. Always skating the same kind of program, never bothering to relate to the audience."
I sort of said the same thing about his skating in another thread.

He needs to sit down and look at his own skating, which in my opinion could use some excitement.
 

mmscfdcsu

On the Ice
Joined
May 25, 2005
Johar said:
2003 Nationals--mens. Can someone refresh my memory of what happened to Weir? I know he did slam into the boards and lied there for a few minutes. But something happened to him before.

None of the men did well. Johnny ran into the boards doing back crossovers. He took a minute to collect himself and restarted the program. He fell very badly on the 2nd triple axel. It hurt to watch. The kid almost did the splits at high speed. At that point he withdrew from the event. He was punished for that decision as the USFSA gave up on him. He did not draw international assignments and did not get a bye to Nationals. I think after that, he was not going to restart a program no matter how much pain he was in. He does not want to be known as someone who bails.
 

dr.frog

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
mmscfdcsu said:
None of the men did well.

Quite a number of men at 2003 US Nationals did very well indeed -- but most of them were in the first two groups that were not shown on TV. There was a quad landed by the very first skater in the first group! And a whole string of near-clean and personal-best performances in the second group, particularly including Parker Pennington and Evan Lysacek. Of the skaters in the final group who were shown on TV, Ryan Jahnke also skated a personal best up to that time, and Scott Smith and Michael Weiss didn't exactly embarrass themselves, either.
 

dr.frog

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
mmscfdcsu said:
He was punished for that decision as the USFSA gave up on him. He did not draw international assignments and did not get a bye to Nationals.

Weir didn't complete a single event in the 2002-2003 season; that was also the year that he hid in his hotel room at Cup of Russia rather than compete, and he then pulled out of NHK Trophy, too. He *did* receive an international assignment the next season, to Finlandia Trophy, but the USFSA has had very specific rules on who qualifies for byes to Nationals in recent years and Weir didn't meet those requirements.
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
dr.frog said:
Weir didn't complete a single event in the 2002-2003 season; that was also the year that he hid in his hotel room at Cup of Russia rather than compete, and he then pulled out of NHK Trophy, too. .

Can you elaborate on that hotel room story? Can a skater do that when sent to a country on the USFS's dime?
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Lots of comments on what he did. Let's see what happens on what he will do. If the injury is healed he should be going to COR.

The lineup is impressive:

Evgeni - more than likely to win it.
Lindemann - when he hits he's good.
Klimkin - most artistic in the whole of figure skating.
Lambiel - a quad king and great stroking.

Johnny will have his work cut out with those named above.

In addition there will be Shawn Sawyer (wave of the future); Song Gao; Frederic Dambier; Alban Peaubert; Yshuhanu Nanri; Kristoffer Berntsson - any of whom could have a personal best.

It's a good comp for pressure on any of those skaters.

Joe
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
dr.frog said:
Weir didn't complete a single event in the 2002-2003 season; that was also the year that he hid in his hotel room at Cup of Russia rather than compete, and he then pulled out of NHK Trophy, too. He *did* receive an international assignment the next season, to Finlandia Trophy, but the USFSA has had very specific rules on who qualifies for byes to Nationals in recent years and Weir didn't meet those requirements.
Please explain what all this has to do with his skate at Skate Canada?? Also, please explain why he was "hiding" in his hotel room??? If he was hiding then all I can assume is someone found him. If you make these kinds of statement can you back them up??? Please give us your source of information.

Dee
 

mmscfdcsu

On the Ice
Joined
May 25, 2005
"After my practice, however, it was apparent to me that it would be in my best interest to withdraw, so I did. I think if I were more experienced or something, I may have been able to push myself through it, but this is only my seventh season competing. I just couldn't handle being in a place I revere as the best in the world, and not skating well due to illness. So I hung around the hotel for the remainder of the trip, basically because the team staff thought it would be best not to be seen. Apparently the Russian federation was upset I didn't compete and wanted Russian doctors to check on me, so I stayed hidden"


http://www.figureskatersonline.com/j...r/journal.html



Excerpt from Johnny's 12/02 Journal entry that I linked a few posts
ago

I think that this is why Johnny kept skating at Skate Canada despite the pain. He is showing us he has matured and that he will not withdraw or refuse to compete. He should be very proud of what he accomplished at Skate Canada.
 
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dr.frog

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
mmscfdcsu said:
"....Apparently the Russian federation was upset I didn't compete and wanted Russian doctors to check on me, so I stayed hidden"

Right from the horse's mouth. If Johnny were seriously ill at that event, why didn't he want to see a doctor? OTOH, if he weren't seriously ill, why was the USFSA team staff so worried that he would get sick again at NHK that they pushed him into withdrawing from that event as well? From Johnny's version of the story, I get the strong impression that his illness was just a bad case of competition nerves, and that the team staff knew very well that there was nothing else wrong with him and sent him home in disgrace. While he's a beautiful skater in many ways, Johnny has always seemed to me to be a rather fragile competitor, and I would hope that by this time he's grown up enough to get over his headcase issues and develop more mental toughness.
 

VINLUVSKWAN

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Johnny Weir at SC

After SC, I wrote to Johnny, stating how sorry I was to see him injured and in pain, and he wrote back promising a much better performance in the near future; I also wrote for him to hang in there. Glean as much as you can from his response.

Regarding his injury, I don't know, it seemed suspicious. If his left ankle, his landing ankle, popped at the malleolus (the round bone at the inner/medial side below the big toe) and he was in abrupt pain then, then why the heck did he keep on skating in various degrees of pain, grimacing, and facial expression. If I were he, I would have skated to the judges, asked to withdraw from the competition (knowing he's proven himself to be able to skate despite injury at US and Worlds earlier this yr). I think the shielding himself from the camera while sobbing seemed a tad bit ingenuine, as bad as when people on TV wear shades to mask their tears. People cry, men cry, and it's just natural. I still root for him though, despite a bad season so far, 3 straight losses and no top 3 finish.
 

mmscfdcsu

On the Ice
Joined
May 25, 2005
VINLUVSKWAN said:
I think the shielding himself from the camera while sobbing seemed a tad bit ingenuine, as bad as when people on TV wear shades to mask their tears. People cry, men cry, and it's just natural. I still root for him though, despite a bad season so far, 3 straight losses and no top 3 finish.

I totally disagree with that. Most people are raised to think that tears are a private concern after childhood. Had I been in that state, sobbing on camera, you can bet that I would have covered my face. I just think Priscilla should have gotten him out of there. Why go through the agony of the Kiss and Cry area after that?
 

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Even as things are, people's first reaction was "Johnny is just being Johnny again! Just like the infamous Nationals!". Had he withdrawn, it would have been like that ever more.

As to crying - I agree with mmscfdcsu. So what that it's natural! Going to the restroom is natural too, but I don't want anyone to see me there. Not because I'm ashamed, but just because it's private. Crying is the same thing.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
mmscfdcsu said:
I just think Priscilla should have gotten him out of there. Why go through the agony of the Kiss and Cry area after that?
A little bit OT, but is there some kind of rule that says a skater must sit in the Kiss and Cry to receive his marks? At U.S. Nationals last yearJenny Kirk was so sick at the end of her program that the instant her marks came up she fled backstage to vomit.

About skaters being too nervous to compete, I am surprised that doesn't happen all the time. When Michelle skates I am too nervous to watch! I have to trick myself by hiding around the corner and peeking out at the TV set.

MM :)
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I know I am going to get hanged for this but I see no purpose in the Kiss and Cry for anyone. I think the referee should stand up among the judges and announce the totals to the audience and press.

Every skater is under pressure.Not easy facing thousands of people; 15 judges, a strange man saying you underrotated that lutz. Who wouldn't feel nervous.
But it has been proven that nervous energy can often produce excellent results.
It's how you play the game, and it is not always easy.

Johnny has some proving to do. Let's sees what happens at COR.

Joe
 
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