Last Year Johnny Weir Gave Up His National Title, Now He's Chomping at the Bit to Get It Back Options

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NATIONAL VELVET

Last Year Johnny Weir Gave Up His National Title Without a Real Fight; This Year the 3-Time Champion is Chomping at the Bit to Get It Back.

By Kathleen Bangs

As a child of a working-class family growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Johnny Weir was a lot of things, but a figure skater wasn’t one of them. Competitive horseback riding was the prodigy’s main passion, and young Johnny was talented enough that life as a future equestrian champion was not out of reach. He loved the thrill of harnessing the speed of his powerful Arabian horse as together they flew across the ground and jumped as one. Shadow was the beloved partner who took Weir to the title of Pennsylvania champion.

Then fate intervened in the form of an innocuous Christmas gift, a second-hand pair of figure skates. On the cusp of adolescence, most champion skaters have already amassed a long pedigree of formal ice training by age 12. For Weir, it was his first time just standing on skates, yet he progressed so quickly that a choice had to be made: pursue either riding or skating.

Weir was inconsolable when, after their final competition together, Shadow was sold and led away to the trailer of another young rider. Emotionally wrenching as that parting was, five years later a solo Weir harnessed his own power and flew and jumped across the ice, all the way to the crown of World junior men’s champion.

IFS sat down with the three-time national champion who is on a mission to regain the coveted men's title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships later this month in St. Paul, Minnesota.

IFS: After nearly three decades, the Champions on Ice tour has not confirmed any dates for this year, which could significantly impact your earnings. While other U.S. eligible skaters may have limited additional tour opportunities, it seems likely that Ilia Auverbukh, operator of the successful Russian Ice Symphony tour, will invite you to join his group. Auverbukh was also behind the award presented to you in Russia earlier this season at the prestigious "Grandioznoe Ledovoe Show." How did you, an American, build this relationship with the Russian former World ice dance champion who has made it clear, on more than one occasion, that he has no love lost for America?

Weir: The actual show was fantastic. The “For Love of Russia” award was presented to me and a blurb with my bio was included in the show program. It felt like Auverbukh and his organizers were genuinely excited to have me there as a part of the show. It’s funny, I’ve actually sort of known him for a long time, but he didn’t know me. I skated at his Delaware rink when he trained in the U.S. with coach Natalia Linichuk. I was young and relatively unknown. During my first Grand Prix season we competed in a couple of the same competitions together. By then I was a World junior champion but he didn’t really know me. Of course, the skating world is so small and our relationship was more of a “friend of a friend” thing than anything personal. At the 2006 Torino Olympics we were standing in the holding area together because they put Russia and the U.S. together. I was admiring their uniforms and he brought up the idea that we should do a show. He’s been very supportive of me, and he sees how much respect I have for his country and how much I receive support from the Russian fans. It’s good for his business.

IFS: When you won gold earlier this season at your first Grand Prix event, Cup of China, it seemed to indicate a change in your competition mentality. You were trailing Evan Lysacek after the short, but in the end you won your first Grand Prix gold since 2004. What happened that you were able to rally a comeback at that event?

Weir: One thing that has been so amazing about my new coach Galina Zmievskaya is her attitude toward other skaters at the competitions. She has been really helpful with her strategy. Sure, I was second in the short program behind my main American rival, but I skated well and we chose to focus on that fact. I was trained going into that event and for the first time in a long time knew I could get through a good free skate, and that’s all that mattered to me. It was incidental that I was second after the short, the luck of the draw. So many skaters and coaches commented to me the next day that I should have won the short and Galina actually got upset with them saying, “That’s in the past; move forward!”

What was interesting for me was that I hadn’t heard anyone say, “You should have won” (laughing) in a long time, and to have Galina brush it off wasn’t what I was expecting. Her strategy was that the results of the short didn’t matter in the long run, because in terms of results what mattered was what would be happening next — the free skate. Maybe for the first time ever in my career, I could have been in any other position after the short and it wouldn’t have changed the free skate, and that’s a mental thing I had not gotten over since I started competing. Rebounding from a big mistake or a bad program was a mental technique I had never learned, perhaps because unlike most skaters I didn’t start when I was age 6. I had only four years of competition experience before going after the World junior title and never had the opportunity to mature mentally into being a top competitor. I’m not blaming any failed or non-enviable results on that but I know it has something to do with never cultivating the skill of blocking out your nerves.

Now I finally feel like I’ve learned. If something goes wrong, I can bounce back and not have it plague and haunt me. I’m happy to know that if I fall behind I can rebound, because last season I could have never said that.

IFS: At the season’s next event, Cup of Russia, you again beat two-time World champion Stephane Lambiel. Then at the Grand Prix Final in Torino, you weren’t able to deliver quite as strong of performances, and Lambiel won the gold. Even with the jump mistakes, his choreography was mesmerizing. Let’s be candid: If you’re perfect and he’s perfect, would there be any way you could beat his free skate choreography and his presentation of it?

Weir: Personally I’ve always admired Lambiel’s performance quality. There are of course things in his skating I don’t like, and know I’m better at, but when performing for an audience he’s very extroverted and throws himself into his programs. When he was younger I felt it sometimes made him look sloppy, but not for a long time. At that time he wasn’t quite mature enough to position himself, but even then he could throw himself into these characters and perform the guts out of whatever he was trying to portray.

For the introverted skater like me, it’s good to see the audience have the performer’s heart beating in their hands, and that’s a special quality he has. At all of the press conferences this season reporters were nagging on him about the triple Axel. In my head, I was sympathetic dealing with the same grief I get about the quad jump. But seeing Lambiel at practice I couldn’t care less if he jumped at all because his program is so pleasing and beautiful to watch. Not in a traditional ballet way, but he can show what he’s feeling and I’m kind of envious he can do that.

IFS: A few years ago we discussed what some described as your lack of audience rapport — that you didn’t make eye contact and skated almost as if you were removed from the audience. Has that changed? Do you want it to?

Weir: I don’t know why I skate the way I do, it’s just what’s natural for me. Honestly, when you’re standing in front of an arena of thousands and a TV audience of millions, you go back to basics, to yourself. So even if I went out with a big smile and big fireworks and a million dollar butt wiggle, it would look so fake and tacky on me it might as well be some music video fluff. That’s not my style — to wear my heart on my sleeve — or be the strong man jumper like (Brian) Joubert or the dramatic Spanish role like Evan (Lysacek).

My style is more introverted and it’s like I’m performing for myself because at the end of the day, I am. At night, in bed, at the hotel alone, I’m either upset or happy with how I skated and no one else’s opinion is going to change that. Off the ice, I’m not introverted at all and go up and speak to almost anybody. But on the ice, it’s like I’m escaping who I am. You can’t teach someone to adapt a style. To interact with an audience, you either naturally have it or you don’t. Watch the top 30 guys and you’ll see who has it. Last season was me trying to branch out and try something different. It didn’t work.

IFS: Ah yes, the “more masculine” version of Johnny Weir. Could it be that perhaps anything was doomed to fail last year?

Weir: Yes. Last season my mind was finished before I even started competing. I wanted to try and branch out, because I can’t be a porcelain doll. That’s a self-description of how I sometimes skate. When I watch a video or see my program photos, I look like I have not exactly a blank expression, and not quite an expression of purity, but something close to that. My appearance on the ice looks, to me, like a porcelain veneer. Yet, it’s me and it’s not fake. Last season we tried the masculine look, the long crazy hair, didn’t shave, did the moves, but it wasn’t me. I was happy I tried but yes, any event I entered last year was not a good one.

IFS: Will there by any attempts to resurrect that style in the future?

Weir: I won’t say no, but from now through the Vancouver Olympics I have hopefully two more Grand Prix seasons, three more nationals, and three more Worlds. When you look at it in that context, there’s not a lot left until I’m expected to retire. Right now I’m getting good results, skating well, and I fell good about the product I’m putting out there. Whether it’s a Russian rock opera or a Yankee doodle dandee, if I’m comfortable that’s what matters.

IFS: With your fondness for Russia, it must be tempting to try and stick around for the Sochi 2014 Olympics. At 29 you’d be old for a men’s singles skater, but would you consider a change of discipline, such as ice dance?

Weir: Right now I’m only shooting for Vancouver 2010. That’s real, and that’s tangible. I would love to also compete at Sochi in 2014 — love to even just take part and be there in a Russian Olympics. To compete for the U.S. or another country at Sochi would be so personally fulfilling, almost as if my whole life as an athlete had come full circle. But the reality is I’ll be old and my federation will have new, young guys to push. To compete in singles I’d have to change countries, I’m positive of that. As for changing disciplines, I don’t think I’d be well suited. Four years would not be enough time to prepare, let alone for a different country. I don’t have any ice tests completed and it’s difficult to do the citizenship change. Realistically, it’s just too hard. I have spoken with Galina about it though. She said to think of Sochi like a dream, and how wonderful it would be to attend not just as a spectator, but as the reigning Olympic champion.

IFS: This season it seems that the stories many major newspapers are running about figure skating lament it as a sport only in decline, with no major stars, and paint a grim picture of doom and gloom. Why do you think they don’t try and turn that around by instead using that valuable newspaper space to help launch a skater’s rising star?

Weir: Figure skating used to have a public persona comparable to the high school homecoming queen or prom queen. Now our image to the public is the homecoming queen after she got knocked up on prom night and is living on the wrong side of the tracks. And my image of course is a rough one. We are a sport that is judged. There’s no timer, no clock, no big padded gear. And because we are a judged sport, there may not be a clear winner in the eyes of the public. If the public can’t get behind that or wrap their head around why a particular competitor won, then they won’t respect the sport.

As a skater I understand not everything in the sport is 100 percent objective, and not all that happens on the ice is what affects the results. I’ve been a victim of that, and I’ve also at times succeeded due to favoritism. People can’t understand the sport. A lot of us have joked that if Sasha Cohen had won the gold in Torino then skating would still be big in U.S., but it always seems to come down to the girls. Some think my rivalry with Evan (Lysacek) is exciting, but we’re not at the same level as ladies skaters, according to the average American perspective. We compete in a “women’s sport” so what we do is not important. Ice dance has Tanith (Belbin) and Ben (Agosto) but ice dancers don’t do jumps, throws, or overhead lifts. To the audience, it’s more like ballroom dancing, and in their minds that’s entertainment, not sport. We’ve been weak in pairs for years, and the U.S. results in general aren’t stellar. If I could become the new World champion this year and save things, I’d do it in a heartbeat (laughing).

Right now we have babies as our top ladies and no real star among the senior ladies that the guys in the audience can say, “Wow, she’s hot” because they’re still so young and not women yet. There seems to be a lack of stars that the “average casual fan” wants to see, but not a lack of stars. Results help. If we can make good results then hopefully something interesting will happen. Tara (Lipinski) was popular because Michelle (Kwan) was popular before her, and Nancy (Kerrigan) in part due to Kristi (Yamaguchi) before her — the domino effect. But with Kwan and Cohen retired, it’s almost like we missed an entire generation.

IFS:Some non-mainstream media seems to view you as a personality that has transcended the sport. Celebrity watcher/blogger Perez Hilton and a number of non-traditional media sites support you. How did that come about?

Weir: I’m not an Internet whiz, and I don’t understand the ins and outs of it. I needed a team (laughing) just to put my own MySpace site together. I’m not a good typist and use two fingers on the keyboard. A lot of the world is connected and entertained online. Perez is someone who not everyone likes, and is controversial, but I respect what he’s been able to do. Last Spring, my “Fallen Angels” exhibition trio with Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov was posted on his site and to have support from someone with a big following and huge internet presence was very good for gaining visibility, and I appreciate that. From what I understand, the comments on Perez Hilton were overwhelmingly positive, which is rare.

It doesn’t hurt to have friends in high places, or to at least be on their radar. For example, Advocate magazine has approached me to do a cover. I won a funny contest on a Ukrainian website — it was for the hottest male athlete. I was up against a variety of athletes including soccer players, tennis players, a boxer and even Evgeni Plushenko. When the general public starts to know your name — related to skating or not — it’s huge for you as a person to be recognized as a personality and someone beyond figure skating because I’m not just a figure skater.

IFS: Does that mean you’re prepared for the day when figure skating is no longer your life?

Weir: For now my life revolves around my career, which is figure skating. But I won’t be able to make a living off of it my whole life. It’s hard to say what I’ll be good at, or what I could make a living doing. I might have to go to college and become a real worker, but I want to stay in the arts. I’d love to be in fashion, but it’s a ruthless world. Of course, figure skating has given me good training for that (laughing). Seriously, I would like to design my own collections.

When I met Vera Wang she said, “I love what you do, it’s elegant and beautiful.” That means a lot to me that Vera Wang knows who I am. Maybe if I call her up she’d give me some tips. At least there are good people to point me in the right direction. When I retire from competing I’ll still do shows, and I think I’ll always have one pinkie toe on the ice, so to speak. But I can’t rely on only skating for my future. I’ll have to go to school, get a real job, and be a real person.

Fashion seems fluffy to some, but there’s a lot that goes into being successful at it. You have to premeditate what the public will want and what will actually work for them. You also have to possess a good head for business, understand trends, the human body, have artistic ability, and be able to sew with good technique. I read as much as I can but I also know music, and understand choreography and dance. Figure skating has brought it all together — it’s been the perfect training for an artistic profession.

IFS:You’ve been criticized in the past for spending too much of your valuable time away from the training rink appearing in fashion shows and attending high profile parties. Earlier this season, you bowed to the criticism declaring you would avoid those distractions. In reality, you lost only two or three days in any given year for those extracurricular activities. Did you really believe it was necessary for your focus to cut back, or were you just trying to silence your critics?

Weir: This year I’m focusing on energy, and not necessarily time. For any of those events, it’s the logistics — the organization, the travel — that take energy. Even talking on the phone to make arrangements takes energy. Before leaving I could spend a day running around when I could instead be channeling that time and energy into my training. So, in a way maybe it was to get people off my back, because after all, it’s my life and it’s allowed — not a crime — to have some fun.
It’s telling that no one criticized me for going back to speak at my elementary school and donating books to them.

I’ve also been active in an organization called The Human Rights Campaign, and Heatherette fashion is a huge part of that project. Elton John supports the fight against AIDS, which affects people around the planet. I know plenty of HIV-positive people and also those who have lost their lives. I want to be associated with supporting research and a cure for the disease. For these events, of course you get to dress up, meet famous people, and enjoy a lovely meal but it’s also for a solid cause. I could understand the criticism if I was pulling a Lindsay Lohan every night, getting wasted and into car accidents. But just because people don’t like certain aspects of a celebrity-driven event, or they love skating but not this periphery, or they don’t want to see me beyond an arena, I will not be defined by what I do, nor my results. When it affects my training, I turn offers down. And if I ask Galina for permission to go and she says she’d rather I stay and train, I respect her wishes. I make decisions that won’t hurt my training; I’m not out to ambush my own skating career.

IFS: Was it after last season’s Tokyo World Championships when you made the decision to switch coaches and take a more draconian approach to your training?

Weir: It was leading up to Tokyo, actually, when I knew I needed something else. There was nothing wrong with my longtime coach Priscilla Hill, we were just out of sync, and the click wasn’t there. She couldn’t make me work, I couldn’t summon the focus, and then we’d be angry and not speak. It was a strange period of time.

My skating suffered but it certainly was not her fault by any stretch. You could see it on the ice in Tokyo. Actually, you could see it in all my events last season. I wasn’t happy to be skating. I was in a funk, and Priscilla couldn’t pull me out. I wanted to get back my love for skating, and thought what can I do to fix this? I still wanted to be a champion but was hating the daily process. There still exists a sacred bond with Priscilla. For a long time, she was the main power-holder figure in my life.

Because I didn’t even qualify in Tokyo for the exhibition gala, I had four days to just walk around and see the sites with my Mom. We talked and hashed things out, and discussed the logistics of switching coaches. A lot of people I spoke to said I needed to train with a Russian, because it was my natural style, and we’d mesh well as coach and student. They discouraged me from seeking an American coach. In my opinion, Priscilla Hill is still the best coach in this country, for anyone, from the preliminary to the Olympic level.

IFS: What is the personal importance to you of regaining your national title? And what is possibly the non-importance of regaining your title?

Weir: Last year I was not prepared to win so I didn’t. This year I’m better than any of the years I’ve won or not won. It’s the most prepared I’ve been and I’m ready to be national champion again. I also understand more than ever that Evan has a lot of backing. I never mean for anything I say to come off as angry about him, or as his bitter rival, because I think he’s a good skater. He works incredibly hard and at that last minute he can turn it on like Plushenko can.

At the same time, I have a conviction that I’m better. So if I show up and skate clean, I don’t think I should lose and I’ll always maintain that. Our relationship is under a microscope because we are main rivals and both want the title. I can definitely say we are not friends. As a person, I’m not a fan of his, and it has nothing to do with him currently having the title. Our personalities are just very different. He’s not a bad person, I simply don’t find his personality attractive as a friend.

Last year I didn’t have a chance in hell to defeat him. He was strong, I was not. Our relationship is fair to poor when we’re together. We’re really just acquaintances, but acquaintances fighting for the same jobs and the same titles.

This year I’m again capable of winning nationals. To have the results I deserve I know I am going to need to skate well.

IFS: Would it bother you more to lose the gold at nationals to Evan, or be beaten by someone else? I don’t mean the scenario of last year’s podium with Ryan Bradley in second — I mean if it’s Evan for gold, and Johnny second — would you then rather it be him in that top spot or prefer it to be anyone but him?

Weir: If I’m second, and someone else is first, I would expect that someone to be Evan. It doesn’t make it more lovely that it would be him, but I consider Evan the other top guy. To me, it’s like the Plushenko-Yagudin rivalry. If one didn’t win, the other probably should have. Evan and I have to defend the top two territories — like a (laughing) sick little army.

IFS: Let’s hear about what you care to disclose regarding your daily routine as one of the world’s top skaters. What rituals are almost daily and what things do you wish you had more time for?

Weir: I can say I’m very regimented and there are certain days made for certain things. Sunday in general is a day off. During the week when I’m skating, I wake up at 7 a.m., shower, and have my first coffee of the day. Driving to the rink I listen to fast music to wake me up and have the first Starbucks of the day.

After practice I go home for a break, check my email, and watch a little TV or catch a quick nap. I definitely do not eat anything and by now it’s 12:45 pm. On the drive to the second practice I hit Starbucks again and if the practice goes well, I’m happy.

The skates come off fast, I’m back in the car, the music is blaring and I’m on Starbucks run number three. I get home around 4 p.m. and between a 6 p.m. dinnertime is my time for tanning, a necessity to avoid looking sickly pale when you’re traveling the world. It’s also my time for assorted appointments like the doctor, dermatologist, hair stylist, dentist, car service and all the rest of it.

I cook my dinner, which is the first time I eat each day, consisting of a small piece of meat, and a salad. No dessert and no potatoes. Then I have my fifth and final coffee of the day. I have about an hour to return calls, and my friends in Russia (laughing) hate this as it’s already 2 a.m. over there when I pick up the phone. This is also when my cleaning gets done, and I’m meticulous. I vacuum a lot, and I run the wet jet, my new favorite toy. Even the tops of my ceiling fan blades get cleaned weekly. I’m crazy when it comes to clean. Then I do my weigh-in, and chart the weight on a calendar. I also buff, floss, do the nails, brush my teeth for the third time of the day, and shave once every two weeks. I hate shaving, it hurts my skin. I apply a plethora of creams, lotions, and masks, and I’m very Prima Dona about the routine that I stick to. I’ll organize the closet if it needs it, and I call my Mom, every night.

IFS: Your schedule sounds exhausting, and I now have the inexplicable urge to order a pizza.

Weir: I’m reluctant to disclose this — I indulge in a growth steroid for my ass (laughing) called Organic Valley reduced fat chocolate milk. It’s amazing chocolate. Weight is taboo for all of us skaters, and it’s something I’m always very aware of. I know that to do certain jumps or get through a free skate, I need to be at a certain weight. During the summer I usually plump up, but there’s a set weight I won’t let myself go over or under. In August I start the diet and give up a little more each day. By September I’m on the diet I’ll use throughout the season. You’re still hungry and you get hunger pangs and sometimes feel faint. It’s not necessarily the healthy way to do it, but it’s what works for me. I’ve tried the “eat more to lose more” mentality, and maybe for endurance sports it works, but not for me.

I eat the minimum of what I need for the maximum results. I’m also intimate with my mineral levels and have been since I was 13. I can tell if I need more protein, and I can feel when I need more calcium. If I need more zinc I can see it in my eyes. What I’m doing may not work for everyone, but if I eat too much it makes me soft and groggy. After all, a hungry dog always catches the fox.

IFS: One of your favorite quotes, by acclaimed Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin is "Upon the brink of a wild stream, he stood and dreamt a mighty dream.” Does that represent you as a boy, standing on the rivers of frozen ice between the corn stalks of your backyard?

Weir: I think in some ways it is very much me, but could also be applied to anyone who stood anywhere and had a dream. I made my dream happen, and I couldn’t have done it without the support from others. That quote is special because I can remember when I walked across the backyard with my skates on and no guards, just the blades on the ground. There were these tiny sheets of ice between the stalks. How sad I was when the ice began to melt, I loved that feeling of movement it allowed me. I think some think of my cornstalk days as a little pond, or at the very least a big puddle, but it was literally just frozen ground, a field of frozen corn. In my imagination I was in a costume at the Olympics and an arena of people were screaming. But in reality, it was just me, the wind, and a little bit of ice.

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