PATTINAGGIO DI FIGURA

CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK
PATTINAGGIO DI FIGURA
FIGURE SKATING
Weird, wild stuff
Johnny Weir doesn’t shy away from controversy, outlandish wardrobe choices or his competition.
By HAL HABIB
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Here’s Johnny, as outrageous
and funny as Jack Nicholson peering through that splintered door in
The Shining, and a bit like a club
striking Nancy Kerrigan’s knee,
only not as subtle.
Go ahead, call him Johnny
Weird if you like. Johnny Weir
doesn’t care. As long as Weir is
skating well and pleasing himself,
his coach and his mother, he
doesn’t care about much.
Mainstream America, you’ve
been warned. This is the disclaimer
that comes attached to Johnny
Weir as he steps onto the stage that
is the Turin Olympics, and the fact
that he does so in the proper sport
of figure skating is but another terrifically incongruous fact about a
terrifically incongruous athlete.
He’ll probably arrive in Italy in a
fur coat, a perfectly scripted tan,
perhaps blue streaks in his hair and
probably a scarf that you must never, ever refer to as a boa. He’ll most
assuredly say something outrageous that will be circulated worldwide, get scolded by the authorities, then say something much
more outrageous.
Recent topics at his news conferences have included cognac, cocaine, wife-beating and his mother
getting caught smoking in the girls’
bathroom in school. All within a 48hour span.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything or change the way I speak
about others or certain things in
the world just because I’m a figure
skater and I have to appeal to these
people,” Weir says. “That’s not why
I figure skate. If I appeal to myself
and my mother, I’m happy with
that. I don’t ‘front,’ as they say.”
With all the attention Weir, 21,
has received for such speaking performances on podiums, it’s easy to
overlook the performances that
place him up there. He’s clearly the
best skater the United States has, a
three-time national champion who
nevertheless might not be a threat
to Russia’s Yevgeny Plushenko.
Likely, no one is. Weir says to simply end up on the podium would be
“phenomenal,” especially given
how he arrives in Turin.
Weir is coming off a forgettable
season in which his programs received tepid reviews by judges. He
was told his elements weren’t difficult enough under the new scoring
system, meaning even if he performed flawlessly, he probably
AMY SANCETTA/The Associated Press
Johnny Weir has had to revamp his long and short programs, which, under figure
skating’s new scoring system, didn’t use a high enough degree of difficulty.
wouldn’t score well. Weir and
coach Priscilla Hill had 10 days to
strip down and revamp his long and
short programs. Meanwhile, Weir
was going through personal problems that he declines to detail.
“I think in any profession it’s
difficult to balance personal life
with your work life,” he says. “How
many high-powered businessmen
come home and beat their kids or
beat their wives because they’re
cranky because it isn’t going so
well? It’s difficult, especially when
you’re in the public eye, like Britney Spears. I can see her carrying
teddy bears around until she’s 80
because she’s never had a chance
to grow up.”
Got all that? Good. In truth,
Weir saw lots of teddy bears in St.
Louis last month. They were tossed
on the ice in appreciation of his
national-championship performances that led to Olympic berths. His
quick rebound conjured up memo-
ries of 2002, when he splattered into the boards and quit at the U.S.
Championships in Dallas, drawing
criticism and ridicule — then followed by winning his first U.S. title
two years later to “shut everybody
up.”
“I like to think of myself as the
hero for the kids that want to say
what they want but they can’t, or
the ones who just feel a little bit different or stifled,” he says.
Weir has skated to a different
beat from the day he began, which
comparatively speaking was the
day before yesterday. Although
many peers began in their kindergarten days, Weir started at age 11,
skating around frozen cornstalks
on his family’s farm in Quarryville,
Pa., near Amish country.
“We’re country bumpkin people,” Weir says.
Weir describes his father, John,
as “All American in football, soccer,
baseball — one of those jock-type
guys. And both of his kids are skinny and can’t play football. I can’t
catch things. I can’t bat things, so
he got a figure skater.”
Johnny’s brother is named
Brian but they call him Boz, after
Brian Bosworth. Except Boz plays
soccer, not football. Got all that?
“He’s very proud of us,” Weir
says of his father. “He got kids who
are polar opposites of what he
was.”
Johnny’s mother is Patti, except
Johnny doesn’t call her that, or
Mom. He calls her Pasha. All this
name hopscotching aside, the thing
to remember is how Pasha always
told her sons to be themselves.
“She’s my friend as well as my
mom,” Johnny says. “We can talk
about sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and
everything. She told me stories
about when she was kid. I think
parents lose sight of the fact that
they were children once. They just
want you to not make the same
mistakes as them, but they won’t
tell you why. My mom is very cool.
She always treated my brother and
I like adults.”
Weir doesn’t share the same
feelings toward another authority
figure, U.S. Figure Skating. Perhaps scarred by what he perceives
as slights after he skated off the ice
in Dallas, Weir seems to delight in
ruffled feathers beyond the type
that adorn costumes.
“We have talked to Johnny,”
David Raith, the federation’s executive director, says of Weir’s drug
references. “Johnny is a flamboyant
guy. He makes certain analogies.
There are some that are more appropriate.”
Having coached Weir from the
start, Hill knows Weir as well as
anybody and has seen a side the
public has not. Weir grew so fond
of Hill’s Chihuahua that he received a Chihuahua puppy on his
21st birthday. But last fall, Hill
learned her dog was fatally ill.
“The next thing I knew, there
was Johnny standing there,” Hill
says. “He went through the whole
thing with me. That’s just the type
of person he is.”
If you wouldn’t expect that from
a rebel who compares performances to sipping cognac or using cocaine, well, that’s how it goes. Preconceived notions and Johnny Weir
don’t go together.
If Olympic viewers don’t know
that now, they’re about to find out.
Johnny Weir has a
penchant for making
memorable comments
while sitting in front of a
microphone. Here’s a
sampling:
After it was reported he was
wearing a boa in St. Louis:
“It was a scarf. No feathers. Lots
of dead chinchillas.”
On his outspoken nature:
“I’m me. I don’t put on a face. I
don’t make statements just to
make them. I mean every single
word I say, regardless if it’s offensive or mean-spirited or whatever.”
On concerns of U.S. Figure Skating officials about his
comments:
“I can understand, because there
are young people that watch the
sport and I don’t want to offend
anyone that might give some money to the federation or anything
like that. Pardon me for saying
crazy things. They reprimand me
and I let it go in one ear and I
think about it before I say things.
Like I won’t make any drug references today. Today. Precisely.”
On the timing of skating’s new
scoring system:
“I think it was a little silly, going
into the Olympic Games and
changing the system so close to
that event, because whatever figure skating audience we still have
— it’s very possible that someone
they’ve never heard of is going to
win the next Olympics and we’ll
lose everyone. . . . There are so
many good things and so many
bad things and I’m going to stop
now because I’m doing run-on
sentences and it doesn’t look pretty in the newspaper.”
PalmBeachPost.com/
olympics
■ Photos, map of the figure
skating venue
■ Interactive guide to figure
skating
A hal_habib@pbpost.com
Living on the edge
Five athletes to watch
In the world of sports, figure skating always has been unique, with athletes
awarded for things like style. Unlike most Olympic events, the margin of victory
cannot be expressed in goals scored or in precise measurements of time or
distance. Instead, routines are followed by tense moments and upward gazes as
the judges’ scores are tabulated.
Sasha Cohen (Corona del Mar, Calif.)
Aspiring model, fashion designer, chef — you name it. Says
her goal for Turin is simply “my personal best” and she’ll let
the medal situation take care of itself.
Event: Women’s singles
Skating in style
All technique elements – steps,
jumps, spirals
and spins – require
great accuracy and
concentration to
appear effortless.
Irina Slutskaya (Russia)
Two-time world champ overcame a disease that made it difficult for her to move her legs. She’s favored in part because
reigning world champ Mao Asada of Japan didn’t turn 15 until 87 days after the age cutoff for Olympic skaters.
Event: Women’s singles
Michelle Kwan (Los Angeles)
Is this finally the year for the 25-year-old, five-time world
champion? She has won silver and she has won bronze —
and she won a petition for an Olympic berth while recovering
from a groin injury.
Event: Women’s singles
This move – in which the woman rotates parallel to the ice while
holding her partner’s hand – is a required element of the pairs’
short program.
This toe-pick assisted jump is named for its
inventor, Alois Lutz of Austria.
Referee
Oversees the judges to
make sure they follow the
proper procedure.
Technical specialist
Identifies each element
as the skater performs it.
Yevgeny Plushenko (Russia)
Technical controller
Three-time world champ is so dominant that American skater
Johnny Weir says everyone else is skating for silver. Plushenko saw a student named Maria Ermak driving a convertible in
St. Petersburg, followed her, and eventually married her.
Event: Men’s singles
The Palm Beach Post
A required element in the ladies’ and men’s short program, the jump
was invented by Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen.
Lutz
Judges – The new system
is designed to allow judges
to focus on the quality of
each element performed
and the five program
components. It also
eliminates the scoring of
skaters in relation to other
skaters.
Current world champion received a congratulatory call from
Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer. With the Australian Open recently concluded with another Federer title, the phone bills
between these two could skyrocket.
Event: Men’s singles
Double axel
Death spiral
A new way
to figure
Stephane Lambiel (Switzerland)
February 9, 2006
Weir’s world
Supports technical
specialist.
Assistant technical
specialist
After the notorious judging controversy of the 2002 Olympics, the International
Skating Union introduced a new scoring system intended to shift focus away from
the judges and onto the skaters.
Program components*
•Transitions
• Interpretation
• Choreography/composition
• Skating skills
• Performance/execution
PalmBeachPost.com
Sum of points awarded for
each of five components;
points given on a scale
from 0.25 to 10.
Grade of execution
Awarded on a scale
of up to plus or
minus three points
Base value
Each technical element
has a pre-assigned base
value
* Ice dancing uses a sixth
component score for timing
Sources: International Olympic Committee; Turin Organizing Committee; International Skating Union;
‘Sports: The Complete Visual Reference,’ Francois Fortin
l
Program
component score*
Technical score
Each element performed
receives a base value plus
a “grade of execution.”
Total score
Nine of the 12 judges are
randomly and anonymously
selected by computer. Scores of
the other three Judges
are thrown out.
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