At 19, U.S. Men's Figure Skating Champ Johnny Weir is Already a Comeback Kid

TURNING IS BACK on last year's tragedy on ice, 19-year-old Johnny Weir is now the reigning U.S. men's figure skating champ. He said he was disappointed by the negative reaction to his fall and injury in `03 because he works so hard at his sport. On the other hand, criticism of his personal tastes or likes does not bother him because "I don't work at making me me," he said. (News-Press photo)

Yesterday, 19-year-old Johnny Weir, the U.S. national men's figure skating champion, boarded a plane in New York and flew to Dortmund, Germany with other members of the U.S. figure skating team to compete in the World Figure Skating Championships over the course of the next week.

It's a triumphant time for Johnny Weir, a far cry from where he was just one year ago, when following a disastrous fall, injury and early withdrawal from the 2003 U.S. championships, he was worried that he might be asked to resign from the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

In Newark, Delaware, last week, where Johnny has trained since he first took up the sport seven years ago, the new champion sat down for an hour-long interview with this reporter. He revealed remarkable qualities of courage, resilience, spunk, a refreshing sense of self, and a passion not only for his sport, but for using his success on the ice as an instrument for helping others in a meaningful way.

Johnny Weir sailed through to the 2004 U.S. Men's Figure Skating championship in Atlanta last month only after he had spent a difficult year fighting his way back into the competition following his seriously flawed performance in February 2003.

Having been first in the 2001 World Junior Championships, he was in second place coming into the final day of the U.S. Men's in `03. He said he couldn't explain what happened at the very beginning of the long program that afternoon, when his skates hit the sideboard and he fell just as his performance began. He got up, asked the judges if he could start over, and did. But only a moment later, he fell again, this time from a badly-launched jump.

When he hit the ice, he said, it was the sharpest pain he'd ever felt in his life. "I don't know how I even got up and walked away, the pain was so bad," he said. He had to withdraw. "I can't describe what I was feeling," he said. "With all those lights and people and television cameras, I was in a state of shock. Later I felt terribly embarrassed."

The injury proved not serious, and back home at Newark he was back on the ice after only a week and a half. He was determined to make a comeback, although not sure if he would get the chance. He said he trained harder in the following months than he had ever before. "I felt I was one step from getting my resignation papers. But even though people might have written me off, but I didn't doubt myself for a minute," he said. "I just had to fight that much harder."

In the summer, he went to Connecticut to train with the Russian teacher Tatiana Tarasova. "She focuses on jumps, on technique, and on strengthening the mind," he said.

In his first opportunity late last summer, Weir was relegated by the figure skating association to an "alternate" status at a second-level competition in Europe. Then last fall he was required to enter a regional competition to "play into" another shot at the nationals, and he succeeded.

So it was a major triumph for Weir to even qualify for the national championships last month. He said to keep himself calm, he decided to treat the whole experience as if he was on a vacation. "I decided to focus on what I could do, instead of what I couldn't," he said.

He showed up well under the radar, barely mentioned by the ABC television announcers at first. But as the first skater on the ice in the short program on Thursday, he was flawless and his performance was good enough for a temporary first place none of the other competitors could measure up.

In the final, long program on Saturday, at the same point he'd met disaster a year earlier, Weir was the final performer and with a shot at winning it all.

JOHNNY WEIR went from a deep disappointment one year ago to become the U.S. Men's Figure Skating Champion last month, and is now leading the U.S. delegation at the World Championships in Germany in the coming week. During this exclusive News-Press interview in Newark, Delaware, last week, the News-Press' Nicholas F. Benton is shown here taking Weir's photo in the reflection to the left. (News-Press photo)

Despite the obvious pressure, "I could not believe the overwhelming sense of calm that came over me as I came out onto the ice," he said. "I did not expect it. It was beautiful."

Outfitted in a costume he'd designed himself, sequenced white and light blue, to the music from Dr. Zhivago he was again flawless as he veritably floated to the national championship.

Asked what was going on in his head during his performance, whether or not he was checking and calculating his technique leading to every jump, for example, Weir said that it wasn't like that at all. "I was in my little dream world," he said. "It's hard to explain. It's nice. It's beautiful. It's a very comfortable place."

He explained that once a jump has been launched, everything is on automatic and there's almost nothing a skater can do to salvage a bad situation. When a quad toe jump is aborted, for instance, it's the result of an almost involuntary physical reaction.

But here's another interesting thing about Johnny. He naturally rotates clockwise, including in jumps and spins, in the opposite direction of about 90% of skaters.

Apparently, it's like being lefthanded. It just comes naturally to about 10% of the population. There's no real explanation. In Johnny's case, he's righthanded, but rotates the opposite of most. This came to light for Johnny when he first started skating at age 12.

Seeing Johnny roller skating around his neighborhood, a neighbor told Johnny's mom that he might have natural gifts as a figure skater. Johnny and his mom went to a community group skating class with a second-hand pair of skates, and within one week, he was doing axel jumps.

The family soon moved the short distance from Coatesville, Pennsylvania to Newark, Delaware so that Johnny could undertake more serious training. He began training with Priscilla Hill, and that relationship has been maintained to this day. One reason she is the "right fit" for Johnny is that she rotates clockwise, too.

One reason Johnny says he loves skating is that it is a perfect combination of performance and athletics. "I am a performer, but I am also an athlete," he is quick to add. His daily regimen includes at least three hours on the ice and Pilates strength training.

"I'd like to let hockey players try this for a day," he quipped. "When they fall, they've got a lot of heavy padding to protect them. All we have are tiny costumes."

Although a high school honor student and now living near the University of Delaware, Johnny does not attend school at this time. "It's unfortunate, but there will always be a chance to go to school. There will not always be a chance to skate," he remarked.

After winning the U.S. championship last month, Johnny was invited onto the NBC "Today" show in New York, where he did an abbreviated skating routine in Rockefeller Plaza. "It was raining and so cold and so early in the morning," he said. But he was flawless (unlike another U.S. figure skater who came on a couple weeks later and fell twice). He then became the first skater ever invited into the studio for an interview with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric.

Johnny said he has a tight-knit group of friends, mostly fellow skaters, who like taking off for spontaneous trips to New York or Boston. "We're more into Boston right now," he said. "We've done New York."

Johnny envisions competing in the Olympics in 2006 and perhaps 2010. He would turn pro after that. Following the World Championships next week, he'll hook up with a short "Champions on Ice" tour that includes a stop at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., on April 9. He will go back to Connecticut this summer to train further with Tarasova.

But Johnny does not view skating as an end in itself. First of all, he has other interests. He designs all his own costumes and has designed some women's clothes. "I would like to be a clothes designer, of a women's line," he said. "I'd do very classy stuff, but not over the top, with nice fabrics. I am very much into making people feel beautiful."

As far as fashion is concerned, he doesn't like things to grow stale. He's dyed his hair different colors more times than he can remember and had it much shorter until recently. Right now, he says, his hair is closer to its natural color than it's been for years.

Not that he hasn't "taken a lot of heat" for some of the costumes he's designed for himself, including for the white and light blue costume he wore while winning the national championship last month.

"Some people thought it was too flamboyant, too over the top," he said. But then, he added, "I don't want to be normal."

He said he doesn't like "people who try to be something they're not," and cited singer Christina Aguilera as his "role model."

"She's herself," he explained. "She's got pure talent and runs with it. She not worried about her image.'

While "it was tough" dealing with the negative reaction to his disaster at the championships in 2003, that was because, he said, it was to something he'd worked so hard to accomplish. By contrast, he doesn't let criticism of his own tastes or likes get to him.

"It is tough to take when it is about something I work hard for. I don't work hard at making me me," he said.

Johnny sees his skating success as a way to make a bigger impact, an impact that he hopes will enable him to help people. "I am not doing anything for the world by my skating. It doesn't change lives or help people, except that I can give skating lessons to kids. So, I see my skating as a way of getting myself into the public eye, to let people know who I am so I can have a greater effect. I don't know exactly what I am going to do with that, but it's going to be to help people. It's important."

To Contact the Author, e-mail nfbenton@fcnp.com