SOUNDBITES — “Congratulations to the medalists. Thank you to the world for showing me love and I hope I didn’t let you down. I am proud.” —Johnny Weir, tweeting last night after finishing his program without a medal
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delurker
Love that guy to bits!
Cam
Former Champ Elvis Stoiko had some interesting things to say including that Weir should have been put ahead of Chan.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/figure_skating/news?slug=es-thoughts021810&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Phil
@Cam: I pretty much agree with the author of the yahoo article. I thought both of Weir’s performances were scored low. I’m no figure skating expert, though. I’m glad he mentioned Takahiko Kozuka as well, who was one of my favorites from the short program. I thought that performance was underscored, but I missed his long program.
Jon
As someone who really doesn’t care much for the sport, it was pretty obvious that Mr. Weir wasn’t judged on his abilities.
john
Johnny should have bumped into 3rd place for a bronze !!!
He got a standing ovation and deserved such. If he plays his cards right and stikes while the iron is hot – he can make a small fortune, see the world, and be financially secure — get a good P/R firm Johnny !
And remember, there have been more famous people in our culture who were unique and have left their mark and they never won an award !!
Good luck Johnny Weir — Johnny be Good !!
terrwill
Johnny qWeir: You were robbed of your tiara!!!!
Republican
@Cam:
I read that, and while Stokjo has a point about Weir, I can’t agree with him on who should have won gold. Yes, Plushenko had the quad, but Lysacek clearly had the better executed jumps and his footwork was more difficult. It’s not just about attempting a difficult jump and landing it. Some jumps are executed better than others and the scoring system accounts for that. Oh, and with regard to component marks, especially during the short program, Lysacek’s transitions were way better, so that has to be remembered as well. (I actually think Plushenko earned significantly higher component marks than he should have.)
And with all due respect to Mr. Stokjo, I can’t help but wonder if he has a chip on his shoulder from the two times he received silver at the Olympics despite including a quad in his program.
Republican
@Republican:
Eek, that should be Stojko, not Stokjo. Please don’t take my gay card away.
AlwaysGay
I am so proud of Johnny. He skated two beautiful programs. The judges were bias and marked his programs low. He was placed 6th in both short and free programs individually even though he skated two near flawless programs and the three skaters ahead of him fell and had other problems.
Jon
The young man is one class act.
Timothy
His skating was clean, his tricks were difficult, and his artistry was beautiful.
But we can’t have some flamer winning a medal, now can we? It would hurt Big Skating, Inc. and our effort to show the world that we’re all he-men here. So we’ll just score him low and put him in 6th.
alan brickman
He insults straight athletes all the time…where is the class in that?…..
BobaLou
Anyone who thinks Evan Lysacek is straight has his head up his ass.
Dasher
I’m not a real big fan of men’s figure skating and certainly no expert, but it was obvious to me that the judges cheated Johnny Weir.
That there might be anti-gay bias in a sport that’s considered to be an unofficial gay sport is hysterical to me. Johnny Weir might not see the humor though. His consolation is a well-deserved standing ovation.
As it turned out, he had more class than the judges.
bobito
@Republican: for the record, Elvis didn’t do his quad in either of those silver-medal winning performances. And I’m pretty sure the gold medalist in 1998 actually did have a quad. (In all fairness to Elvis, he was pretty badly injured before the long program in 98, hence no quad. Very impressive that he could still skate well enough to hold on to silver.)
Damn, when it comes to figure skating I have the memory of an elephant!
Republican
@bobito:
Bobito, I just checked on this and you are mostly right. He didn’t do a successful quad in either, but it appears that he had planned to include one in his LP at both of those Olympics. In 1994, he did a triple axel-triple toe instead of a quad toe-triple toe as he normally would have done (he had planned a triple axel-triple toe earlier in the program, but messed up on it, so he probably felt he had to include it). In 98, he was going to do a quad toe, but ended up tripling it. And yes, Kulik had a quad that year, so you’re right about that. And yes, you do have an impressive memory.
Despite you being right on those details, I stand by my disagreement with Stojko’s comments regarding the winner of this Olympics. The man who had the most all-around difficult program that was also skated closest to perfection won the night (others may have had more point-worthy programs planned, but they ended up making significant mistakes). Obviously, if Plushenko had added a double loop to the end of his quad toe-triple-toe like he has done in the past or if he had saved more of his jumps for the latter half to get the bonus, things might have been different, but that’s part of the thinking and planning you have to do in the sport. Combine the choices he made with the fact that his footwork was easier and that his jumps were sometimes poorly executed, and it’s clear why he came in 2nd.
bobito
@Republican: I didn’t get to see the competition yet (I recorded it and will have time to sit down and watch in a few days), but it would surprise me very much if the judging was unfair to Evgeny Plushenko. They usually tend to favor him, which means the new scoring system (I have now read Elvis Stojko’s article, and very much disagree with it) has more merit than I would have thought – in the 2002 Olympics Plushenko fell in the short program and still ended up ranked 2nd by the judges under the old scoring system. That would be very unlikely to occur now.
As for Stojko’s worry that skaters will think they don’t need the quads, the counter-argument is that skaters who can jump quads will think they don’t have to really skate well… I think it was one of the reasons they changed the scoring system in the first place.
zenflo
Since this has evolved into a bit of a skater clusterfuck, I’ll add that I watched Evan Lysacek yesterday in a look-back interview with Bob Costas.
While usually a classy interviewer, Costas was hellbent on reading multiple incendiary quotes from Plushenko, the Russian media and Yeltsin (the latter, “Your silver is as good as gold, blah blah blah, more Stoli dammit.”).
This is the culture that Weir seeks to emulate?
Anyway, Lysacek had the poise of someone twice his age, and didn’t take the bait. Sorry, Pravda, you’ll have to invent your own quotes — nothing new of course.
zenflo
@zenflo: Wait, was it Putin? Medvedev? Plushenko? Plinko?
I hate when the chip falls in the “zero.”
Dasher
@Zenflo — It was Vladimir Putin. Boris Yeltsin died several years ago. Medvedev was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, as usual.
zenflo
@Dasher: Thanks, Dasher. In the unlikely event Weir is tuning in, here’s something to make his heart beat a little faster:
http://www.thehotjoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/putin_noshirt2.jpg
Taylor Siluwé
Weir & Lysacek are exhibiting all sorts of class right now. I’m extremely proud of both; but Weir especially, because the opinion is almost unanimous that he was robbed by the judges.
It’s a fucking shame actually, considering the limited number of chances one gets at an Olympic medal. I just hope Johnny becomes a HUGE star, and then those judges can suck it.
Go Johnny! What ever you do from here on out, we got your back!
Republican
@bobito:
I agree totally. The judges do seem to favor Plushenko. If the 6.0 system were still in place, it’s quite possible that the other night’s results would have been a lot different. I’m still not sure that I entirely like the way the new scoring system has changed the sport, but I do have to admit that, on average, the results seem to be a lot fairer.
john
the Quebec Council of Gay & Lesbians is filing a petition against those 2 Canadian newscasters who made discriminatory comments about Mr. Weir. The Olympics stands for a place where every creed, color, origin, sexual preference and religion is exempt for discrimination of any type — that is the essence and purpose of the Olympics – to celebrate our differences, praise the best of the best, and become one !!!
If Scotty Lago – skate boarder was asked to leave the premise because of a lack of respect via picture taking while fooling around off site — how the heck can these 2 newscasters get away with discriminatory statements while broadcasting on air ??
Complaints are now being filed by the Quebec Council — since all is in French !! I can’t find the proper website for sending in my own formal complaint to the Canadian Broadcasting muckity mucks to assist with disciplinary actions against the 2 broadcasters — where can all of us help to send emails and voice our concerns over this incident ??
U.S. gay national organizations should also be protesting and asking for an apology, a monetary fine, or a resignation.
Where do we start ?????