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Feb. 14
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  Why
Johnny Weir rocks:
Cyd and I agree that American figure skater Johnny Weir is
our favorite Olympic athlete. We love his outspokenness and
the fact that he is comfortable with who he is.
While there
are
no publicly out skaters in Torino, Weir isn't even
trying to fool anyone ("His being obviously gay -- without
actually coming out -- doesn't bother me," one Outsports
poster wrote) and in his interview last night on NBC he took
great delight in tweaking the establishment. As he walked
out of the arena Tuesday night, he looked at the camera
seductively, then shimmied his shoulders while throwing his
head back. If Weir, 21, is not gay, then neither are we.
Here is Weir unplugged on NBC:
"I know
that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style
people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what
I'm going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things
are going to come out of my mouth. Good for them, they
should be scared.
"I'm not a
good, little figure skater that goes to bed at 8:30 every
night and gets up at 6:30, eats my three meals and goes to
bed again. [in the background, playing on his car radio, as
he's driving in the piece, swear to God, is 'What a Girl
Wants, What a Girl Needs']. I'm a real person. I do real
things.
"I'm not
going to be the shiny, sparkly, flower-holding figure skater
that sits here and says I'm going to do my best today and if
I don't, then I'll go home and train really hard next time.
That's not me. I'm going to be really angry if I skate bad
and I'll probably say crazy things. That's how I rock it.
"I'm not
for everybody. There are going to be people that like you
and people that hate you. There's nothing I can do. I don't
think I'm a diva or pompous enough to be in the position of
acting like a diva, but I like things the way I like them to
be. It's really my own game and my own agenda and to live my
life as happy as I can be.
"I'm not
out there to be a puppet for anyone. … For now, my critics
can eat it. I want people to remember me as someone that
pushed the envelope, pushed the boundaries of the [he makes
an air quotes move with his hands] 'United States figure
skating establishment.' … I'm happy with who Johnny Weir
is."
All we can
say is: You go, girl! (Jim
Buzinski)
Like,
dislike:
Weir is getting somewhat of a mixed reaction from Outsports
readers. Our photographer Brent is a fan:"It's hard to
imagine anyone more gay without a PFLAG mom introduction, a
float under his feet, and a "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"
soundtrack. … He may not think of himself as a true diva,
but he's right about many thinking he's a deviant.
"To
nail his performance while in the middle of the
some-love-me-some-hate-me intensity of the Olympics is his
personal triumph. And one he'll be able to carry his whole
life proudly, whether it's the heavy metal of an Olympic
winner, or just the metallic glitter of the outfits he
chooses to wear. Johnny, you're wearing rather nicely with
me."
But
Kick on the
message board was blunt: "While I enjoy the fact that he says exactly what he likes to
say and what he wants, he simply comes across as an
unlikable bitch."
Medal
hunting:
Weir is second heading into Thursday's long program, but the
gold medal is all but awarded to Russian Evgeni Plushenko,
who has a commanding lead after the short program. For
Plushenko to lose would be the equivalent of Tiger Woods
blowing a six-shot lead on the final day of the Masters; it
ain't going to happen. "... If he falls three times maybe,
just maybe someone can squeeze by," Weir said.
"It's
over, it's done, it's Valentine's Day and I can go buy
myself a rose and some chocolate," Weir added after his
beautiful skate as the Swan, complete with a red-gloved hand
that served as his beak. "He's comfortable in his own skin,"
wrote Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "And his
own feathers."
(Jim
Buzinski)
Clean
freak:
Weir had complained about the drabness of his Olympic
Village accommodation, and he reiterated it to reporters on
Tuesday. "It's drab and it's dirty, no matter how many times
I mop the floor," Weir said. "I mopped it and it's still
dirty." (Jim
Buzinski)
Meow!:
I love listening to Dick Button do skating commentary. He's
the Simon Cowell of NBC's team. "He's more like a soccer
player trying to do a tap dance," Button said of one
competitor. He dissed Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel by
saying, "That costume looks like a distant cousin to my
dining room curtain." (Jim
Buzinski)
"Quad
toe, triple toe, aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" I think Howard Dean has taken over the soul of Scott
Hamilton. NBC's figure skating play-by-play guy is getting
awfully excited by some of the stunts these athletes are
pulling on the ice. And I'm just tired of hearing the same
skating terms from him over and over again. Double axel, toe
loop, Salchow. Please, Scott, just shut up and let us watch.
(Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
 Hot
jock of the day:
Kevin Van Der Perren (right) is a figure skater from
Belgium, and he now has my heart. His fauxhawk couldn't have
been more quaffed (I couldn't decide if it was gay or just
metrosexual), and I had to wonder if the
"exit" on the back of his black leather outfit should
have said "enter." (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
What's
in your wallet?
If I didn't have a Visa card, I'd go get one. Visa's "Life
Takes Practice" ad with cross-country inline skaters with
their shirts off is the most homoerotic commercial I've seen
these Olympics. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
USA
fourth again, Germany slides up the medal count:
After
four trips down the Cesana Pariol luge run that claimed five
casualties in the woman’s singles event, it was Germany that
swept all three spots on the medal podium. Team USA’s
Courtney Zablocki finished 4th, just 0.392
seconds out of the medals. Tony Benshoof, the top American
in the men’s comptetion, was also 4th. The German
sweep helped to bring Germany’s medal count to seven by the
end of Day 4. Norway has the most medals (11) followed by
Russia (nine), and the USA and Germany tied with seven
medals. The USA, however, has the most gold -- five.
(Ryan
Quinn)
No
glove, no love:
From our good friend Andy Towle on his
Towleroad blog:
"This 100% mink Jetstream Deluxe Fur
Penis Muffler made in the 60's and endorsed by the U.S.
Olympic Committee,
is for sale on eBay. Somehow I can't see Jeremy Bloom or
Bode Miller taking to the slopes in this, but the
fashionable Johnny Weir on the other hand..."
Chokers?
Good thing NBC spent all that money promoting Bode Miller.
He's 0-for-2 with three events to go. Good thing they put
Apolo Anton Ohno on a pedestal; he blew it in his first
race. Good thing they pumped up Michelle Kwan's quest for
the gold; she won't even take the ice in Turin. Now,
wouldn't it have been better to tell more stories about
these "lesser" athletes who are winning medals than these
people who have given us nothing to cheer about? (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Alpine
skiing – men’s combined:
It was a
dramatic -- and ultimately triumphant -- day for Americans
in the Alpine combined event. The day started off well when
the famous but underperforming Bode Miller won the downhill
portion of the three-part race. Then Miller was disqualified
after video replays showed that he straddled a gate in his
first slalom run. The error wasn’t visible in real time to
the naked eye and Miller himself said he didn’t realize he’d
missed the gate, but the slow motion replays clearly showed
his right ski on the wrong side of the pole. At the time of
his disqualification Miller was in first place with a lead
of almost a full second over Austrian Benjamin Raich, who
would later be disqualified himself for skiing off course in
the second slalom run.
Meanwhile, American Ted Ligety turned the fastest second run
time, bumping him up from 22nd place and into the
medal hunt. With an even more impressive third run, Ligety
completed the upset to clinch the gold medal. This of course
is the best thing that could have happened for American
skiing. The attention on the U.S. Ski Team, and particularly
Bode Miller, has been unfocused and distracting all season.
Maybe now we can concentrate on winning races instead of
gossiping about whether Miller stayed out too late, drank
too much, or chose the wrong skis.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Surprise
winners and their priceless reactions:
It was very neat to watch Ligety win the gold in the men's
combined ski event. As his friends jumped the barriers and
tackled him in the snow, with his hot-pink goggles, his
parents crying in the stands, I got a little choked up by
the incredible emotion that he and his supporters were
showing. I also thought it was GREAT to see Ivica Kostelic
of Croatia so enthusiastic after he clinched a medal (he
ended up with the silver). I don't remember ever seeing an
athlete so ecstatic without finishing first. Once he had
clinched the silver, he was seen with his sister, also a
skier, crying with joy. Very cool, and a lot nicer than
seeing Bode Miller win the event, I must say.
The
favorite in the event had been Benjamin Raich, who seemed
pretty cool. He was disqualified for clipping a flag while
leading the pack on his last run. He's also gorgeous. Check
out
Benni's Web site, where you can find some nice pictures
of him and even his e-mail! (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Sisters
are doing it for themselves: I hope the grinches in FIS have
been watching, to see the display of skill, guts, toughness
and can-do that women put on at Torino. These are the old
gentlemen who have kept women out of ski jumping because
they're afraid the impact of landing will damage women's
delicate innards. Indeed, women have had to battle their
way past this old protectiveness to get into most sports.
First there was the incredible halfpipe finals, with all
the women reaching for more air and bigger tricks than
ever. Torah Bright of Australia did tricks that even the
guys don't do. In her final ride, Kelly Clark went off the
charts with enormous air -- almost as high as Shaun White --
before she wiped out on her final landing and finished 4th.
The commentators were beside themselves with excitement,
declaring that -- medal or no medal -- she had raised the
bar for years to come. Nobody was protecting these women
from possibly breaking their backs or cracking their skulls
against the edge of the pipe.
Next came the pairs finals. Let's face it -- pairs skating
may have this genteel facade, but underneath it's pure Roman
circus. Everybody always holds their breath for the woman.
It's the woman who gets lifted and thrown; nobody protects
her from the risk of severe, possible fatal, injury during a
fall. You could feel the tension in the whole place as
Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin took the ice. The
image of her terrible fall two years ago had sunk deep in
the sport's collective mind -- her skull almost split open
against the ice. Would it happen again?
But it was clear, as they unreeled their program, that
Totmianina and her partner had put the past behind them, not
only mentally and emotionally, but artistically, as she went
high and confident on a dizzying one-handed lift. The gold
medal was well deserved.
As if this wasn't enough, Dan Zhang had a terrible fall as
she and Hao Zhang attempted a throw quadruple salchow. The
music stopped and she crippled off the ice, bent over in
agony. The image was all the more horrible because of her
slight, fragile-looking build. But after a couple of
minutes she pulled herself together. The current rules
allow for a program to be resumed with a medical okay, so
the two Zhangs went back on the ice and picked up where they
left off. Dan Zhang was a bit shaky on a couple of
landings, but the otherwise brilliant performance brought
the whole place to its feet with a wild ovation. Even the
hard-boiled commentators were beside themselves with
excitement as the Zhangs took the silver.
Afterwards it was amazing to see the two pairs of victorious
gladiators on the podium together, having won through their
pain and risk. It was one of those unforgettable evenings
that people go to the Olympics to see.
Yes, folks, women are tough. Yet it's amazing how ouchy our
culture still is, about the "delicacy" of women athletes.
The Torino media are surrounding injured women Olympians
with obsessive flurries of attention -- skier Lindsey Kildow
and her crash, for instance -- while injured men get carted
off the course with an air of "whatever." In another
demonstration of toughness, Kildow is out of the hospital
and declares her intention to race today.
It's time for the silliness to stop. I hope the voting
members of FIS are reading all these loud-and-clear
messages, and vote "yes" on women's ski jumping in May.
(Patricia Nell Warren)
In
the wake of Cheney shooting, U.S. men off target.
The top
10 men in Tuesday’s 10K biathlon race combined to hit 96 of
100 targets. That’s pretty damn accurate when you take into
account heavy breathing and a heart rate of about 170 beats
per minute. The 10K “sprint” is a format that favors faster
skiers over better shooters and should have been perfect for
American Jay Hakkinen, who skied to 10th place in
the 20k race Saturday, despite missing 3 of 20 targets. But
skiing advantage or not, in the Olympics you still have to
shoot well. Hakkinen missed a whopping 6 of 10 targets
Tuesday—more than the top ten finishers combined—and
finished in 80th place. I can only assume
Hakkinen’s gun sight was bumped out of alignment, which can
happen if you fall or as you take the gun on and off your
back.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Exhausting:
I really enjoyed watching the biathlon, a sport I barely
understand. These guys really go all out and have to be in
amazing shape. It's also tiring. The winner,
Germany's
Sven Fischer, crossed the finish line, then collapsed as he
tried to get back his breath. (Check out this
great AP photo from the Washington Post). He still
lay there minutes later as another skier crossed and had to
avoid hitting Fischer. (Jim
Buzinski)
Silver
for Canada, U.S. continues to ski dismally:
Swedes Lina Andersson
and Anna Dahlberg
grabbed cross country gold in the women’s sprint
relay, a new Olympic event, just ahead of North American
hopefuls Beckie Scott and Sara
Renner of Canada. In the sprint relay, teams of two athletes
alternate laps around a 1.3K course, each skiing 3 times.
The Norwegians were once again shut out of the medals as
Aino Kaisa Saarinen
and Virpi Kuitunen
of Finland skied to bronze. The US pair, made up of Wendy
Wagner and Kikkan Randall were last in the ten-team final.
Both Scott and
Renner of Canada skied wonderfully in the months leading up
to the Olympics and came to Torino expecting to win
individual medals. Tuesday’s team silver may have been a big
step in that direction, relieving some of their medal
pressure and allowing them to relax and ski even faster in
the upcoming races.
In a
much closer men’s sprint relay, Sweden made it a golden
sweep when anchor leg skier Bjoern Lind sprinted from behind
to overtake Norwegian Tor Arne Hetland just before the
finish line. The Russian team of Ivan Alypov and Vassili
Rotchev took the bronze.
Canadians Devon Kershaw and George Grey and the American
team of Chris Cook/Andy Newell were 6th and 7th
respectively in the semi-finals, not good enough to qualify
them for the final.
The U.S. Ski Team has skied consistently mediocre in Torino,
placing in the 40s and 50s in the pursuit and in the lower
half of the sprint relay results. Admittedly, their best
events are yet to come, leaving some hope that there’ll be
something to get excited about. The American men will have
the best shot at top-ten finish in Friday’s 15K classic race
as well as the 50K Freestyle race on February 26. Both the
men and the women have an outside shot at top-ten finishes
in the sprint race on Feb. 22, where anything can happen.
Norway also is not meeting the high expectations they
carried into these Games -- though, as a perennial favorite,
they had more at stake in the first place. Norway’s Marit
Bjorgen, widely believed to be the best female skier in the
world, dropped out of the pursuit race Sunday and had only
enough energy to finish fourth in the sprint relay.
Meanwhile, all four cross-country gold medals awarded so far
have been mild upsets. Parity is certainly expected in a
sport where innumerable variables weigh differently each day
on the competitors, but Norway in particular seems to be
underperforming, which must be drawing some harsh criticism
from their ski-crazed fans back home.
(Ryan
Quinn) |
