New Weir Interivew "Johnny Be Good" | Golden Skate

New Weir Interivew "Johnny Be Good"

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Haven't seen this posted here, so here goes:

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/LIFE/606020309/1004

For Johnny die-hards, more of "the same", but for the rest of us here's his take on why FS is going down in popularity:

A: I think that people lost respect for the sport after the last Olympics, after some of the medals were given out. I think the public is tired of little girls in sparkly dresses talking about their feelings, and how they just want to skate well, when inside, they're cold-blooded killers! That's what people want to see. But honestly, I love figure skating, and I hope that it regains its popularity.

I can relate to his thoughts but somehow think that might not be the PRIMARY reason here.
 

orchid

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
He had my interest for a while, a short while. I look forward for ANY U.S. male skater to skate right over him at Nationals.

Sorry, Johnny could have had it all, but wasted the opportunity. Now, he is just another "good" skater,



:eek:hwell:
 

SeaniBu

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 19, 2006
Yah, the "black inside comments regarding his LP performance left me thinking whatever. Still like his skating and enjoy what he brings to the sport, feminine in the masculine to a new degree. Not that it is totally new, I just like the way he carries it. More like a hard core lesbian hockey player.

I thought this wasn't getting posted - seeing it on the Home page for a couple of days - because there wasn't to much interesting statements made.

I found the most interesting to be
Johnny said:
I think the public is tired of little girls in sparkly dresses talking about their feelings, and how they just want to skate well, when inside, they're cold-blooded killers!
:laugh: Maybe he is spending to much time with Irina and thinks of her as a little girl - who knows?
The rest of it seemed like everything else he has been saying recently.
 

slutskayafan21

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 28, 2005
In 2004 he seemed fresh faced, and innocent, and just excited to be healthy again, and finally fulfilling some of his potential with U.S title, and top 5 finish in his Worlds debut. He seemed confident, yet humble at the same time, and to really savour and appreciate his success and his sport. His personality has definitely changed and not for the better. Why cant he go back to being the 04 Johnny?
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
One has heard me say this before but it's a nice thing in a world of cookie-cutter "ice princesses". JMO, of course
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
seanibu said:
Yah, the "black inside comments regarding his LP performance left me thinking whatever.
Sean, I don't know what you mean by the quote. Can you explain, please.

I like Johnny and his skating but I wish he would stop with the smart comments. For me it's like---ok, you said it once---move on now. Please use all your energy thinking about your skating instead of the next wise comment.

Red Dog, I don't find Johnny refreshing at all, I find him rather boring because of the persona he tries to portray. But as you say, that just my opinion.

Dee
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Dee4707 said:
Red Dog, I don't find Johnny refreshing at all, I find him rather boring because of the persona he tries to portray. But as you say, that just my opinion.

It's all right. It's a matter of opinion and what persona you like best. I tend not to like cookie-cutter princess smiles; I think those are boring. To each his/her own, I guess. (I won't name any skaters.)
 
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SeaniBu

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 19, 2006
Johnny made the comment that he "felt black inside" the following day after the Olys LP. I read this in the newspaper. He also mentioned something about his Biorhythms being off. Personally the chances that he was partying to hard the night before at the Russia house are not without, "I wonder if," from me.
 

76olympics

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
Every interview I read of Johnny's confirms my impression that he still has some maturing to do. He has a "crush" on Russia right now which may ripen into a adult level of interest. In contrast, Plushenko and his countrymen seem to be very grown-up; I wonder what they think of Johnny. I am sure they think he is talented as most of us do, but I don't think they feel he is "one of them."

I am very interested in Russian culture and history myself . I think it is commendable that Johnny looks outside his own culture; it's just something about his current gushing that seems adolescent (well, that and missing the bus! I just have to say that I could catch a bus when I was 21 and I wasn't the most mature person on the planet at that point! )

I enjoy hearing from him, but I do think he would be wiser to ration his words and put his focus on the skating after the distractions he had this season.
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
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Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
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76Olympics said:
enjoy hearing from him, but I do think he would be wiser to ration his words and put his focus on the skating after the distractions he had this season.
Very, very well said 76 Olympics. I totally agree with your comments.

Seanibu said:
Johnny made the comment that he "felt black inside" the following day after the Olys LP. I read this in the newspaper. He also mentioned something about his Biorhythms being off.
Thanks Sean, now I understand.

Dee
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Johnny must be laughing all the way to the handbag boutique to think that anyone is paying attention to anything he says. :agree:
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
seanibu said:
Johnny made the comment that he "felt black inside" the following day after the Olys LP. I read this in the newspaper. He also mentioned something about his Biorhythms being off. Personally the chances that he was partying to hard the night before at the Russia house are not without, "I wonder if," from me.

No, no ,no Seanibu, it wasn't his biorhythms it was his aura :laugh: !!

I must say that i do like the fact he goes out of his way to try to shock people and be a "character". By all accounts he's been an attention seeker since he was young, i've read some accounts of him at regional events in the past that show him to be be pretty attention seeking, but i quite like it. He has a strong personality and is still young, i'm sure he'll have no regrets later on in life about what he's said.

Ant
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
He's doing a good job at being a 'character'. If he wins the next worlds it will be a festive occasion. But he can't fail to skate his best, because it will be a hard fall from character. Let him be. It's his life, and he's not doing anyone any harm.

Joe
 

SeaniBu

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 19, 2006
antmanb said:
No, no ,no Seanibu, it wasn't his biorhythms it was his aura :laugh: !!



Ant

I know you put a laughing emoticon after the comment, but now that I think about it you maybe more correct in that quote.:agree:
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
76olympics said:
Every interview I read of Johnny's confirms my impression that he still has some maturing to do. He has a "crush" on Russia right now which may ripen into a adult level of interest. In contrast, Plushenko and his countrymen seem to be very grown-up; I wonder what they think of Johnny. I am sure they think he is talented as most of us do, but I don't think they feel he is "one of them."

I am very interested in Russian culture and history myself . I think it is commendable that Johnny looks outside his own culture; it's just something about his current gushing that seems adolescent (well, that and missing the bus! I just have to say that I could catch a bus when I was 21 and I wasn't the most mature person on the planet at that point! )

I enjoy hearing from him, but I do think he would be wiser to ration his words and put his focus on the skating after the distractions he had this season.

I couldn't agree more, I'm 21 and was as sheltered as they come, but I do pretty well on my own :laugh: I mean, yes missing the bus can happen, but when is Johnny going to just say "I screwed up" instead of blaming the bus, the media, the USFSA, etc...

that being said, he's just repeating himself more and more...

when he's talking about the last olympics in teh quote about why people are bored with the sport is he talking 02 or 06? because the popularity went down well before this past season... someone isn't paying attention! LOL :laugh:
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Tonichelle said:
I couldn't agree more, I'm 21 and was as sheltered as they come, but I do pretty well on my own :laugh: I mean, yes missing the bus can happen, but when is Johnny going to just say "I screwed up" instead of blaming the bus, the media, the USFSA, etc...

To give him his dues though, he listed the bus as one of the things that went wrong that day, everyone jumped all over it saying that he was blaming the bus for his poor skate and in his next interview he pretty much said he screwed up, his bad skate was just that and not to be blamed on the bus. I think he's a heart on his sleeve kind of guy - someone asks him a question and he tells you what's on his mind without thinking - i'm pretty much the same so i tend to forgive it in others!

Ant
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
The incident of missing the bus threw Weir off from his mental balance. I can understand that very well. The same would happen to me if on an important day something would go wrong and I would get scared about not arriving early enough. Personally though, I would take care of checking matters beforehand and more than once to ensure that there would be no unpleasant surprises.
 
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slutskayafan21

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 28, 2005
Tonichelle said:
I couldn't agree more, I'm 21 and was as sheltered as they come, but I do pretty well on my own :laugh: I mean, yes missing the bus can happen, but when is Johnny going to just say "I screwed up" instead of blaming the bus, the media, the USFSA, etc...

that being said, he's just repeating himself more and more...

when he's talking about the last olympics in teh quote about why people are bored with the sport is he talking 02 or 06? because the popularity went down well before this past season... someone isn't paying attention! LOL :laugh:

The popularity of skating has seemingly gone down since around 2001 big time, or did it start even around 99? Sometime between 99-2001 it really started. I have two main ideas for that if I had to guess:

1)Not enough marquee rivalries. The public was transfixed by the Kwan-Lipinski, Kwan-Slutskaya, Stojko-Eldredge, Stojko-Kulik, Stojko-Urmanov, Kwan-Chen, Kerrigan-Biaul, Biaul-Bonaly type of rivalries, marquee matchups that happened more then once in a year it seemed. In the pros there were even better rivalries like Ito-Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi-Sato, Brasseur/Eisler vs Gordeeva/Grinkov, Boitano-Browning, Boitano-Hamilton, Klimova/Ponamarenko vs Usova/Zhulin, Klimova/Ponamarenko vs Torvil/Dean. There are not as many of those anymore.

2)The boom from the Harding-Kerrigan fallout was so high, and the excitement around skating almost too enormously high in the enusing years, that everything after the boom of that began to fade, especialy in the years after the 98 Olympics which had built up to with more grandour then normal due to this boom period, that everything seemed like a letdown, and things seemed less interesting and appealing to people then they would have even been before this boom.
 
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Joined
Jul 11, 2003
That's true, SF. Those were the days. The Kwan/Cohen rivalry didn't start until 2002 Nats and never really got interesting until 2004 Worlds with Cohen's Swan Lake. However, Kwan was skating at that time with an injured hip but made one last gasp at the 2003 Worlds which Cohen didn't place in either. That rivalry never really materialized and while Cohen/Slutskaya rivalry began, it didn't do much for interest, imo. Shizuka was the amazing one.

Oh yeah. Back to Johnny. He's ok by me.

Joe
 
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