What happened to Johnny Weir? | Page 5 | Golden Skate

What happened to Johnny Weir?

brigichan

Spectator
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
It's so interesting to see how people are still living in denial. Johnny would have never given the bye if he missed US Nationals. Given, his condition and competition didn't influence any of Abbott's, Mroz' and Lysacek's performances, they probably could have delivered a similarly stellar performance each in his absence too. And in that case, nobody would have been nuts to even consider it for a second to put Weir on time and leave one of the medalists at home.

If Johnny would have backed out of the competition, he would have gotten even more awful comments from the press and the fans, everybody would be saying excuses, excuses, excuses all over again. Instead, he decided to compete and not even give chance to such comments. He fought for it as hard he was able to, and finished where he finished. And what is he getting? "Excuses, excuses" and "he is so unsportsmanlike" bla bla bla. So am I right to assume that somebody, who comes back from such severe sickness, trains hard and tries hard to compete, is a sore looser, instead of some kind of small hero, somebody one could look up to and say, "geez, what a hard working young man, maybe we should be a little more proud of him"...?

:rock: and collective eyerolles at some folks here. :disagree:
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
If Johnny would have backed out of the competition, he would have gotten even more awful comments from the press and the fans, everybody would be saying excuses, excuses, excuses all over again. Instead, he decided to compete and not even give chance to such comments. He fought for it as hard he was able to, and finished where he finished. And what is he getting? "Excuses, excuses" and "he is so unsportsmanlike" bla bla bla. So am I right to assume that somebody, who comes back from such severe sickness, trains hard and tries hard to compete, is a sore looser, instead of some kind of small hero, somebody one could look up to and say, "geez, what a hard working young man, maybe we should be a little more proud of him"...?

:rock: and collective eyerolles at some folks here. :disagree:

After reading Johnny's journal entry for Jan 6/09 and some other newspaper articles, it sounds like he was sick for about two days and then needed time to recover. I'm not trying to say that his illness didn't affect his training schedule, or that his illness wasn't awful. I'm sure it did affect his training and I'm sure it was awful. I think calling his illness "severe" is taking it a little too far. It sounded like he had a generic stomach flu, which combined with exhaustion from traveling affected him more than it would most people.

On another note...
While reading his journal entry, between the GPF and Yu-Na's show, he went home for one week (from what I understood anyway). Why would he do this when it was such a long way to travel? Both events were in South Korea...

This was taken from a press conference just before 2009 nationals:
With retirements of Stephane Lambiel and Jeffrey Buttle, and injuries sustained by Brian Joubert and Daisuke Takahashi (who is out this season to recover from surgery), is he concerned the new system is wearing people down to the point of making them much more susceptible to injury?

When you're in phenomenal shape, your immune system becomes weaker and weaker, and that's just a natural, physical reaction of the human body. And to compete in this system, you have to be prepared to run a marathon every day and you have to be so in shape and on point at all times to actually make it from the start of the program to the end of the program. So it's no shock to me that people are getting injured or people are getting sick. I myself was sick for NHK Trophy and then I was terribly sick just after the Grand Prix Final and I know a lot of athletes are struggling with the flu this year because our immune systems are so weak because of the shape that we have to be in all year.

And considering injuries, of course, they're going to come easier when you're working yourself to the bone on a daily basis. That's what sports should be, but at the same time, this system is slowly killing everyone off. I'm just longing for the day when you see that beautiful program that's clean, that you can really feel something from, and not be secretly adding up points in your head while you're watching it. I miss the days of when Michelle Kwan would skate a program and get perfect 6's, or when Alexei Yagudin would kind of breeze through this amazing footwork that maybe wasn't technically that difficult but you got an emotion from it. And the judging system not only has taken that away from the sport but it's also injuring many of its top athletes and it's such a shame.

I agree about the injuries, not so sure about the immune system. Isn't exercise supposed to help your body and help keep your immunity up? Am I going completely insane for thinking this way?
 
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Hsuhs

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Am I going completely insane for thinking this way?

I don't think your insane, I just think you are wasting your time. But by that I'm not suggesting you shouldn't continue to post whatever you feel like posting.

Oh, and BTW. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
 

taylorfax

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
Basically, Johnny is asking for someone who beat him to be kicked off the team to make way for him.
Basically? Really??? I would think that'd be kind of hard to do since nobody at that point had beat him and no.team.was.even.formed. Meaning, no one knew what place, podium or off the podium they would end up that night. For all he knew, everyone after him imploded in the last group and he would end up first.
Really, I wasn't going to get involved in this debate any more but seriously, uninformed opinions like this piss me right off.
 
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brigichan

Spectator
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
After reading Johnny's journal entry for Jan 6/09 and some other newspaper articles, it sounds like he was sick for about two days and then needed time to recover. I'm not trying to say that his illness didn't affect his training schedule, or that his illness wasn't awful. I'm sure it did affect his training and I'm sure it was awful. I think calling his illness "severe" is taking it a little too far. It sounded like he had a generic stomach flu, which combined with exhaustion from traveling affected him more than it would most people.

Loosing 4 kg in a day (with vomiting and inability to eat), dehidration, passing out is pretty much severe in my book, but I don't know your standards so I guess there is no point in arguing on that.
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Basically? Really??? I would think that'd be kind of hard to do since nobody at that point had beat him and no.team.was even.formed. Meaning, no one knew what place, podium or off the podium they would end up that night. For all he knew, everyone after him imploded in the last group and he would end up first.
Really, I wasn't going to get involved in this debate any more but seriously, uninformed opinions like this piss me right off.

JMO.

By saying that he hoped the USFSA would consider his past results and accopmlishments, it seems to me like he was not expecting to place in the top three (which the World Team is normally based on). By asking them to consider his previous results, he is asking to be placed on the World team instead of someone else because of his achievements.
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Loosing 4 kg in a day (with vomiting and inability to eat), dehidration, passing out is pretty much severe in my book, but I don't know your standards so I guess there is no point in arguing on that.

Sounds like the stomach flu I always seem to get. I'm not saying it's not bad. You feel like you're dying at the time. In a week or so after the initial vomiting, etc., you're fine.

Cancer is severe. Alzheimer's is severe. Stomach flu...not so much.
 
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werelump

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
I agree about the injuries, not so sure about the immune system. Isn't exercise supposed to help your body and help keep your immunity up? Am I going completely insane for thinking this way?

Supposedly, other athletes have stated the same thing. I googled "athletes good shape immune system" and this was the first thing that popped up:

source: http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/fatigue.html
Coaches have observed that some athletes appear to be frequently ill and, historically, in both the summer and winter Olympic games, team physicians have noted the common occurrence of URIs. All too often this tarnishes the athletes chance at gold.
On the other hand, too much exercise can lead to a dramatically increased risk of URIs. The stress of strenuous exercise transiently suppresses immune function. This interruption of otherwise vigorous surveillance can provide an "open window" for a variety of infectious diseases -- notably viral illnesses -- to take hold. This is especially true following single bouts of excessive exercise. For example, it has been observed that two-thirds of participants developed URIs shortly after completing an ultramarathon. Similarly, cumulative overtraining weakens the athlete's immune system, leading to frequent illness and injury.

That might explain why Johnny keeps getting sick this season. He's just been training too damn hard. ;)

The rest should do him some good. Hopefully Johnny will figure out how to better manage his body next season and avoid all these health related setbacks.
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Supposedly, other athletes have stated the same thing. I googled "athletes good shape immune system" and this was the first thing that popped up:

source: http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/fatigue.html



That might explain why Johnny keeps getting sick this season. He's just been training too damn hard. ;)

The rest should do him some good. Hopefully Johnny will figure out how to better manage his body next season and avoid all these health related setbacks.

Wow. That's really interesting. You learn something new everyday.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
it could also be added stress... how many hours do they sleep when heavily training? Scott Hamilton listed a very weird schedule when he was training as a world class skater... and I assume others have similar ones, if not even more intense... it makes sense that they're immune system is compromised.

add in their travelling outside of their realm of known "attacks" and voila! illness left and right.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
JMO.By asking them to consider his previous results, he is asking to be placed on the World team instead of someone else because of his achievements.
I didn't get that impression at all. He had, just moments before, finished an uncharacteristically disappointing performance, and his emotional reaction was, gosh, I hope folks don't judge me on that performance alone.

brigichan said:
Instead, he decided to compete... He fought for it as hard he was able to, and finished where he finished.

Thank you. The end. Go Johnny in 2010!
 

Tigger

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Just wanted to clarify something from a couple pages back...

Someone posted about Sandhu not going to Nagano despite the fact he came in second at Canadians that year. It wasn't Skate Canada/CFSA's decision to not send him to those Games. That was the Canadian Olympic Assoc/now Cdn Olympic Committee's call. They had far more stringent qualifying standards going into those Games which didn't take into account the "what if someone just comes out of nowhere" scenario.

For a Canadian skater to be named to the 98 Olympic Team, they had to place w/in the placements to make the team at Cdns, which Sandhu did. The other requirement was that a skater had to have a top ten placement at an International event either the season before or during the 97/98 season. That was the sticking point as Sandhu had never competed as a Senior before those Canadian Championships, therefore didn't have any International placings.

Skate Canada/CFSA wanted Sandhu on the Olympic Team as they saw what kind of potential he had. W/all of the attention on Elvis going into Nagano, Eman could just go, gain experience and fly under the radar while going to an Olympics w/no pressure on him at all. The COA/COC dug in their heels and said the rules were the rules and Eman did not go to Nagano.

The COC has since loosened the qualiflying standards a little bit to allow for that type of a scenario, if it happens, so the athlete in question could represent Canada at an Olympics. I noticed that whomever posted about that mess thought that Skate Canada passed Eman over for Jeff Langdon for that Olympic team, when that wasn't the case at all.

It does make one wonder though "What if Sandhu had been allowed to go...?". Doesn't it?

Anyway...Just thought I'd clear things up regarding all of that.

As for what Johnny said...It was said before the final flight had even skated and Johnny knew what he'd done wouldn't stand up. That's it. That's all.

Sheesh...The way people are reacting, you'd think the World had come to an end. :rolleyes:
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
A skater's skating life is very short at best. At best Johnny doesn't have many competitions left. That's why people are upset. There is nothing irrational about it. Emotional perhaps (we love him), but not irrational.
 

sashaisgreat

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Immune system problems

I think that athlete's problems with their immune system is all about the close quarters that they find themselves in. They fly internationally a lot. Every time that I go home to Europe, I get sick as soon as I get back. I think it's the plane ride and germs that I am not usually exposed to on a daily basis.. Then, they often stay in the same place (hotel or Olympic quarters) . It doesn't take a great scholar to figure out that when you put a bunch of stressed out, tired people from different places into a small area, someone is going to get sick. So, I think that they should give some consideration when their athletes are sick because of conditions that the federation puts them in. Not to say that Johnny should absolutely go. I am just saying that it should be considered.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
A skater's skating life is very short at best. At best Johnny doesn't have many competitions left. That's why people are upset. There is nothing irrational about it. Emotional perhaps (we love him), but not irrational.

Tigger's avatar is Kurt Browning. He's been skating for how many years? If Johnny wanted he could skate as a professional (and if the rumors are true that he's been blacklisted from the current shows IMG/Disson put together - which I doubt - then he can do like Scott Hamilton and create his own line of skating shows). However, from all interviews/articles I've read it sounds like once this part of his life is done, he's done with the sport.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
THERE. IS. NO. DIFFERENCE.

The reasoning for wanting the bye in either case is the exact same - "hey we weren't medically sound at Nationals, don't consider just this competition when determining the World team."

Yes there is - how can you say there is no difference when one of them skated and the other didn't??? Not skating at all because of injury and skating badly then saying ignore the skate cos i was ill is very different.

Ant
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
JMO.

By saying that he hoped the USFSA would consider his past results and accopmlishments, it seems to me like he was not expecting to place in the top three (which the World Team is normally based on). By asking them to consider his previous results, he is asking to be placed on the World team instead of someone else because of his achievements.

I disagree - the quote is that he hoped he would be put on the team and this was on a TV interview. Did Johnny ever actually approach the USFSA and request that he be named to the team? I don't think he did.

Ant (who hopes he wins the lottery :p)
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I don't think he looked ill in Cleveland, and nutrition is more than just moderate exercise. It has a lot to do with diet, and digesting the essential nutrients in food. It could be he is not eating well. I have no idea what Johnny does when he is not skating in a show or competition.

He didn't skate his best SP or his LP. It happens and more than likely he will snap back to doing his bests again. Suguri is a perfect example,
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
Yes there is - how can you say there is no difference when one of them skated and the other didn't??? Not skating at all because of injury and skating badly then saying ignore the skate cos i was ill is very different.

For some reason you seem to think the act of not skating gives a skater some special warranty. As if doing nothing is better than trying and not winning. That's just bad logic. There isn't a difference (in terms of deciding the World team). The fact is that B/A and Johnny were both not in good physical health for Nationals and that's all that needs to be taken into consideration.

If the U.S. wants the best results at the World Championships, they should send the best people. If Johnny's health has improved then he should absolutely be named to the World team. His international record speaks for itself. Brandon Mroz does not deserve to go to Worlds (given the unfortunate circumstance of only being able to send 3 skaters per country). Look at what just happened at 4 Continents - he performed (relatively) poorly. He didn't do great during the Grand Prix circuit earlier this year either.

Bradon Mroz's ONLY strong showing as a Senior was at Nationals this year. Why should one good competition be worth more than everything else Johnny has accomplished? It ISN'T. Saying anything else and naming placements for the World team based only on the results at Nationals is backwards thinking. It's blindly following tradition for tradition's sake. In other words - IGNORANCE.
 
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