So … was Johnny Weir robbed?

February 19th, 2010 · 46 Comments

So Johnny Weir skated a freestyle program that brought the crowd to its feet. He had entered the finals far enough behind (6th) that the punters had given him only a long shot at bronze. But there was a moment, as NBC commentator Scott Hamilton yelled, “That’s the best that I’ve seen him do!” and Johnny left the ice, that it seemed like he might get 3rd place. Instead, it was Takahashi who got the bronze. Johnny Weir got buried in 6th place. So what went wrong for him?

Despite figure skating’s efforts to de-politick itself, it is still very political. After that judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, embarrassed figure-skating authorities put a complex new scoring system in place. It was supposedly aimed at minimizing the impact of a judge’s personal bias. But juries in murder trials can be prejudiced by what they hear on the news. Why not skating judges as well?

By this morning, all over the world, many sports pundits and skating fans were scratching their heads over the call on Weir. And they weren’t all LGBT fans who are convinced that the judges were homophobic. I went to Google and searched under “Johnny Weir was robbed” — and was amazed at the pages and pages of comments that come up. Scott Hamilton, who also happened to be 1984 gold medalist in men’s figure skating, stated bluntly that Weir had been underscored. Even Elvis Stojko, who is trying hard to get “effeminate” skaters like Weir out of the sport, wrote on Yahoo, “Johnny Weir should’ve been higher than sixth.”

Under a title that read in part, “Why the Judges Don’t Like Johnny Weir,” the Christian Science Monitor’s staff sportswriter Mark Sappenfield blogged his own analysis of last night’s judging: “Despite a flawless performance, he finished sixth. Part of that, he acknowledged, was because ‘I did a lot of leave-outs,’ lowering the difficulty of his routine. Yet his execution kept him in medal contention. His technical score of 79.67 was 6.19 points higher than that of bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi. So how did Weir lose his chance at bronze? Simply put, the judges didn’t like his routine much. Weir scored 77.10 points in the more subjective program components. Takahashi scored 84.50 - 7.4 points higher.”

My old friend Skip Mackall, out skating figure who is doing a radio show during the Olympics, had his own different analysis. He emailed me: ”Well, you know I’m a Johnny fan, but under the scoring system he missed the mark on some areas. The music is to be changing ie. fast, slow, fast. Also his program didn’t change directions often enough, Both triple lutz jumps were weak on edge (they kinda became flip jumps…flip is inside edge, lutz outside). I think 4th was a more realistic placement.”

But if the judges did express any non-skating bias in the “more subjective” area, what was that bias? Was it about Johnny’s off-the-ice flamboyance? The hinting that he’s gay but never saying it? The pink ribbons in his costume? And how can pink ribbons be an issue when “Think Pink” is a breast-cancer campaign and even rodeo cowboys are wearing pink?

Were the judges also rankling against Johnny over non-sexuality issues? Like his running battle with PAWS? Were they resentful of the high-powered ads for his new TV show, which aired right during the competition? Johnny was the only figure skater who got that kind of visibility in Vancouver.

Barring an investigation, we may never know what skewed that scoring.

One thing we do know: Johnny was open about wanting to erase the public’s memory of his disastrous performance at Torino in 2006. He went back to the Winter Games to get that monkey off his back. He left out the quad jump at the last moment (always a skater’s option) to make sure he could finish without a fall. Meanwhile he kept saying that he intended to “be himself.” Weir knows the icy politics as well as anybody, so he surely knew that “being himself” in Vancouver might cost him. And maybe it did.

So far, in Weir’s statements to the press, he’s being gracious about what happened. (Unlike Plushenko, who is boiling over with sour grapes.) Johnny’s career is clearly moving away from skating competition, into other realms of performance — fashion, entertainment and celebrity. The important thing is — he goes into his future with a clean slate. The public — including his huge international fan base — knows he had a victory in Vancouver, whether he stood on the podium or not.

By Patricia Nell Warren

Tags: Figure Skating · Homophobia · Johnny Weir

46 responses so far ↓

1 edo // Feb 19, 2010 at 10:25 pm

What the olympic judges did last night was tell everyone that if your
openly gay and HONEST you have no chance in figure skating… they sent a message
….why would anyone in their right mind put their child in this sport,
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars training them and dedicate their
life to it when if you happen to be gay you will not win no matter
what.

Can anyone please explain to the public who watched the mens figure
skating how Johnny Weir was scored lower than:

* DAISUKE TAKAHASHI (Japan, Bronze Medal) Takahashi fell on his first
jump in the program, a quad attempt, and landed squarely on his ass. I
mean that literally. He slid on his ass for what seemed like an
eternity, got up, and finished a program that otherwise had the same
degree of difficulty as Weir. His scores were so inflated that NBC
cameras actually caught him reacting with shock, not entirely pleasant,
that he had scored as highly as he did despite a bad fall and other
errors.

* STEPHANE LAMBIEL (Switzerland, 4th Place) Lambiel bobbled nearly
every landing and mailed in all his other elements. The crowd seemed to
drift off into sleep as Lambiel nearly missed jumps, stumbled from one
element to another, and skated in slow motion.

* PATRICK CHAN (Canada, 5th Place) In addition to a fall, Chan’s
performance was all over the place. It was unfocused, sloppy, and he
couldn’t seem to hit anything right. The commentators were full of
excuses for Chan: he’s injured, he changed coaches, he’s too young. He
wasn’t too young, however, when he won Silver in the World
Championships last March.

Ridiculous.
Why would anyone follow the figure skating sport or become involved
when performance is not rewarded but image and behind the scenes deals
are.
This is why I do NOT watch figure skating except during the olympics..th ejudging is corrupt..you are not evaluated on you perform but who you are and who know.
The only good thing out of this is i am now a JOHNNY WEIR FAN
2 chandler20 // Feb 19, 2010 at 10:57 pm

Stephane Lambiel was outed by the press in Switzerland and is openly gay against his will, has been for months now. Takahashi is openly “girlish” in the Japanese press, likes fashion and hairstyles, etc. Both skaters have been getting higher artistic scores than Weir between Torino and now…Johnny went through some very rough patches. The judges may have suffered from some shell shock that he laid it down like he used to, but they had no problem placing his “Swan” short program second only to Plushenko back in 2006. It’s not all about sexuality. Sometimes being a more feminine skater works to a person’s advantage.
3 FeFe // Feb 19, 2010 at 11:07 pm

Weir had to have known stepping onto the ice, the only way he could medal was to land a quad. He didn’t even attempt it but teased the media with the possibility. It made headlines. Weir played it safe, and there is no reward in demure free skate.

The quad generates buzz and adds to the political scoring nature I’m sure. The judges were well aware “fellow American Evan Lysacek, the current world champion, has eliminated it because it causes too much stress on his left foot. U.S. champ Jeremy Abbott will attempt a quad, as will defending Olympic gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko and Turin silver medalist Stephane Lambiel. The quad has long been a staple of 2007 world champion Brian Joubert’s programs.”

He did well and should be proud. Johnny, and the media, don’t need something else to be coy about.
4 chandler20 // Feb 20, 2010 at 12:45 am

“Technical scores” are subjective in a way and “PCS” scores are objective in a way…it’s not just a matter of liking or disliking something.
Program component scores include skating skills and transitions, for instance, both objectively quantifiable. Skaters with higher skating skills will get deep into the ice, maintain better control and speed, and have you watching their blades as much as their faces…one of the reasons I keep watching Patrick Chan even though I don’t much like his personality.

High technical element scores (TES) often mean that the judges are “subjectively” deciding that your spin, jump or footwork sequence deserves more than base value, so if Weir got lots of positive GOE from the judges and high tech scores, how were those same judges lowballing him? They have the power to give 0 or +3 as they choose, just as they can also choose to give a higher or lower score for choreography or transitions.

I’d say Johnny has the traditional Russian artistry–costumes aside, Daisuke is more flamboyant than he is on the ice. Johnny has the smoothness, the elegance, and the technical precision that earns the positive grade of execution in the technical score, but sometimes he doesn’t have all that much more than smoothness–his programs are barren choreographically.

Daisuke has the speed, the choreography, and the determination to give a performance–he’s fast, he changes directions quickly, he hits different speeds, notes and tempos in a way that works dramatically, and he makes a show of it. No one else really does this except for Lambiel, and Lambiel didn’t do it when it counted.

Chan got the homefield advantage, and was distinctly overscored, which isn’t his fault–I guess it always happens, every Olympics, but it’s too bad Weir misses out on the exhibition skate because of it.

Daisuke did better on presentation than any other skater in the competition in my opinion…Weir is a star and has always been a U.S. favorite..he’s a three time US champion for a reason.
5 Shen // Feb 20, 2010 at 4:32 am

This piece from a figure skating blog gives an insightful look into politicking and how it could have worked against Weir. It’s a fascinating read.

http://auntjoyceicecreamstand.blogspot.com/2010/02/art-of-international-politics.html#comments
6 Emet74 // Feb 20, 2010 at 1:50 pm

I don’t know why, but yes Johnny was shafted.
Here is the link to the scoring breakdown:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/ns/pdf/FSM010101C77B.pdf

As you can see, Johnny’s techincal score for the long program was the third highest of the night. What hurt him were incredibly low scores on the “program componants”; for example he received a 7.85 for “interpretation” while Lambiel received an 8.7. How is that possible, when Johnny had the audience on its feet?
Crazy judging.
7 Stephanie // Feb 20, 2010 at 2:52 pm

I agree Johnny Weir should have been higher than 6th place, but to say he was robbed of the bronze medal is ludicrous. Daisuke Takahashi skated one of the best and cleanest free skates of the night, with the exception of the fall on the quad. People who regularly watch figure skating know that a fall on a quad is perceived differently from any other fall, b/c they’re just so damn hard to do. Have you seen the success rates? Most skaters have a less than 30% success rate with the quad. So when a skater picks himself up after a nasty fall and goes on to give one of the best skates of the night, then he deserves a high score. I commend Daisuke on his courage and hard training which allowed him to persevere. Had he not attempted the quad and just done 8 clean triples, he could have challenged Evan for the gold. I’m also sick and tired of North American Weir fans claiming the judges dislike him because of the controversy his “gayness” brings to the competition. Like another poster previously pointed out, there are plenty of other gay and effeminate male skaters out there (stephane lambiel and takahashi). None of their fans ever bring the “homophobic” argument to the table, and when Weir fans keep bashing everyone else to prop up their poor misunderstood star, it really just embarrasses Weir.
8 Stephanie // Feb 20, 2010 at 3:00 pm

Oh, and I agree with Chandler. Johnny Weir skates beautifully, but it is actually a softer, less showy type of beauty. Nothing wrong with it, just pointing out the disconnect between Weir’s flamboyance off ice and his rather conservative but beautiful artistry.

Daisuke on the other hand, rocks the ice, and even when he is feeling cautious, you can see him really working all elements of his skating. Have you seen his cyber swan hip-hop routine from 2008? Probably my favorite SP ever. Like I said, Daisuke is immensely talented and had the goods to win gold. I think he is more artistically way more talented than Evan Lysacek, but because he decided to risk the quad, he missed his chance for gold and ended up with a bronze.
9 ariel // Feb 20, 2010 at 3:13 pm

http://i.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d3c4dcad-26ce-4469-893f-423444a385ca.html
The bobble after the spin was because Johnny stepped into a rut on the ice. When he paused a half-second, he was looking at the rut.
10 Tommy // Feb 20, 2010 at 4:52 pm

I think he was robbed, but tbh it happens a lot in figure skating, where the fans’ views will diverge from the judges’ and no one knows why (though we’ll have our suspicions). I’ll note that the routines of the other skaters were not exactly ‘macho’ either, though they have not been constantly portrayed as ‘outrageously’ flamboyant and effeminate the way Weir has been, in clearly uneasy and handwringing terms (B-BUT IT’S SO GHEY! AND THAT’S WRONG!). Interestingly I’ve seen much more affection for Weir from female skating fans than from male followers, gay or straight - and I’m pretty sure that more figure skating fans are female than male, so perhaps that should be taken into consideration the next time the media panics about “feminine” aesthetics in some skaters, privileging the tastes of a few as if they are the only ideal. It seems to me that regardless of what judges think, and regardless of what style is currently in vogue, fans still enjoy watching a variety of individual styles and in particular, performances that shine with authenticity, where a skater’s soul is laid bare on the ice….

Still, I think this bit of scandal might make Weir’s performance more memorable in the long run; who remembers bronze medalists anyways? Much less fourth. And thankfully he’s responded with grace, though I suspect some were eager for him to snap ‘prissily’/'bitchily’ in the dramafest manner of a stereotypical queen. Best of luck to him in his next endeavor (fashion, was it? I can’t tell whether to dread or be bemused by the inevitable collaboration between him and Lady Gaga).
11 ariel // Feb 20, 2010 at 5:01 pm

What’s more, the only major imperfection in Johnny’s performance was a bobble following a spin, which was due to a rut in the ice. Johnny says that in a review of his performance: http://i.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d3c4dcad-26ce-4469-893f-423444a385ca.html
If you look at the video of the performance, you will see him eyeing the ice for the rut.
12 Seymor // Feb 20, 2010 at 5:06 pm

I am devastated and discouraged with the decision judges made about Johnny’s performance. He was different, artistic, flexible and inspiring. There is NOTHING to compare with the other 3, who got the 3rd, 4th. and 5th place.
Life is not fare, but the judges at the Olympic Games sold their fairness for political correctness.
Johnny, you are people favorite! You won our hearts and warmed our souls. Thank you!
13 Charlie // Feb 20, 2010 at 5:33 pm

To most watching it was clear that the only two skaters who brought their A game to the final round were Evan and Johhny, and that is not just ‘American bias’. All the other skaters including Plushenko looked a bit tired, and some just played it safe. No wow. I thought Johnny was fantastic, and really showed amazing character throughout. In some ways he is better off not standing on the podium; with all the politics, and bogus judging, he stayed above it all. But realistically it exposes the extremely disreputable judging in these contests. Without taking anything from any of the skaters themselves, all the Canadians were overscored, and it really is to the detriment of the sport that they cannot seem to find better offials. They are truly corrupt beyond redemtion.
But GO JOHHNY GO!
14 Hartley // Feb 20, 2010 at 5:33 pm

Johnny was robbed of 4th place. It was going to be difficult to catch up from the point gap he started with from the short program to earn a medal. Takahashi had one big mistake in a good program and great short program numbers. BTW, Loved this article! I do think a lot of people feel Johnny should have placed higher because it is obviously true.
15 Krista // Feb 20, 2010 at 6:03 pm

Judging by the amount of traffic on the internet about this issue it is clear that many people feel Johnny was passed over and I tend to agree as well. It was so no first place performance but it sure as hell shouldn’t have put him in 6th!
I certainly agree with the articles closing sentiment. Johnny came to prove something in Vancouver and he did. However, when you have punished your body for years the way these guys do to perform at that level, its got to hurt not to have the little trinket to show for all those years of sacrafice.
Hats of Johnny, and I’m super disappointed that I’m not going to see you perform Poker Face at exhibition gala!
16 Lisa // Feb 20, 2010 at 6:12 pm

One of the best pieces I’ve read on this. However people are forgetting about the short program. Weir skated beautifully, while the 3 men ahead of him made mistakes. He was in 6th after the short program after skating better than the men in 3rd, 4th, and 5th. So it’s very difficult to convince myself this “competition” was fair when it clearly wasn’t.
17 DEn // Feb 20, 2010 at 6:30 pm

This is really going to aggravate the entire Canadian homophobia in figure skating buzz that has been circling ever since ABC World News said Canada was trying to “toughen” up male figure skaters. It is kinda of hypocritical for Canada to do this, considering the Sale & Pelletier scandal of 2002. Well I guess it is Canadas turn to take the heat for encouraging the judges bigoted scoring.
18 Chris // Feb 20, 2010 at 7:22 pm

I think it is obvious now that Johnny was robbed. And it does have something to do with his unapololetic, androgynous expression that the skating world is simply uncomfortable with. NO other man reached the level of artistry that he did in the Vancouver Olympics (and he still skated smoothly and nailed some great jumps). His skating seems to come from deep inside him and is very different from the other more extroverted skaters. I loved watching Daisuke’s short program and he is a wonderful skater. However, he fell on his ass while trying a jump, and that is a huge glaring imperfection in his program. Lambiel and Chan are also very good but their work was sloppy and uninspired compared to Weir’s. Nuff said.
19 Southern IL Skating Fan // Feb 20, 2010 at 7:27 pm

Johnny Weir was robbed. Had a skater with a manly outfit and a little more machismo performed the same routine, the judges would have gobbled it up and given higher scores. Of course, it was clear after the short program that the judges would stop at nothing to ensure that Johnny Weir didn’t get a medal. These are after all, the same unabashedly biased judges who tried desperately to just hand the gold medal to Yevgeny Plushenko by inflating HIS short program scores, only to be force to give the gold to Evan Lysacek when Yevgeny Plushenko turned in an utterly disgraceful excuse for a free skate.
20 Four Year Fan // Feb 20, 2010 at 7:56 pm

Johnny was freaking robbed! It was a tragedy and casts a dark shadow on the sport. It is really too bad. I really got sucked in to Johnny’s performance. To think Chan scored higher is sad.
21 Terre Cavalier // Feb 20, 2010 at 8:32 pm

Yes, Johnny was robbed! He gave a flawless performance, no falls & didn’t get a bronze - WRONG! He deserved a bronze medal!
22 CS // Feb 20, 2010 at 9:18 pm

The scoring that took place for Johnny Weir’s performances in Vancouver was a disgrace. The judges knew it was his last Olympics and they wanted to send a clear message to Weir and all skaters that are openely gay on the ice.

All of Weir’s fans need to start a petition and send it to the Olympics Commission and let them know that the underscoring was a disgraceful act that undermines figure skating and competitive sports.

NBC were also bias toward Johnny Weir and the remarks made by the commentators were also disparaging and showed a hatred to all of us who are gay.

This has to stop and people have to stand up. It’s wrong. The bottom line is Weir did not get a fair shot and never had a chance.
23 CS // Feb 20, 2010 at 9:22 pm

I urge all of Johnny Weir’s fan to start a petition and to file it with the Olympics Commission. Since the Olympics took place in Canada, the Attorney General should also be contacted. It was outrageous what happened.
24 chandler20 // Feb 20, 2010 at 9:42 pm

Figure skating judging is influenced by reputation…by showing up and jumping well and performing well enough times in a row that judges give the benefit of the doubt. What Olympics-only fans may not realize is that Johnny Weir’s reputation plummetted between 2006 and now. His artistry declined towards empty programs that he did not put energy towards expressing. He showed up for competitions for a while and was held up as much as Chan was at this Olympics on some occasions, based on the reputation that he used to have back when he was a three time US champion and a contender for gold in Torino.
It happened for a couple of years, and then the reputation marks stopped coming…he was not really considered a medal contender at all going into this Olympics, he was considered someone who had once been great but whose best days were behind him.
What he put down in Vancouver was a flashback to his best days and could have been scored much higher. Plushenko and Lysacek both could have scored lower, too–thinking about this, Lysacek’s artistry does not compare with Takahashi’s, but he scored over 167, having just triple axels, when Takahashi’s record-breaking score from Four Continents included two quads, one in combination, and far superior presentation, and got just 175.
Plushenko was messy on every jump, and if performance matters, as it is supposed to, perhaps Weir should have beaten both him and Lysacek, who, as the commenators admitted, was tight and underperforming throughout the majority of his free skate.
25 chandler20 // Feb 20, 2010 at 9:58 pm

One more bit of food for thought–Weir attacked American judge Joe Inman for emailing other judges about Evgeny Plushenko’s lack of transitions, saying he hoped Inman would never judge again–this was only a week ago.
And Inman had given Weir himself some of the lowest transition marks he’s ever recieved in his life–under 4.0, when other judges gave over 7.0…Weir, like Plushenko, is truely weak on transitions, something that has earned him criticism on figure skating message boards all season.
Some of this is about politics, but a whole lot of it is just about skating, whatever it means to different people.
26 chandler20 // Feb 20, 2010 at 10:20 pm

I admit I’m a Takahashi uber-fan, and wasn’t always…I’m a figure skating fan above all, and will uber someone else when he retires. But, from my perspective, it bothers me that there are so many people trying to tear down him in particular, even though he arguably could have scored above Lysacek in the free skate. Lysacek was stiff and underperformed, but got marks as though he had given his best and more…he could have performed lights out, loose, high energy, and earned that score, but he was nervous, tight and eeked it out.
Yes, Takahashi fell. He fell on the quad, which Lysacek never tried, and Johnny didn’t try either. Triple axels, check. Triple axel combo after the halfway mark earning bonus points, check. And some people are leaving comments showing they think Takahashi and Oda are the same person, or completely undermining his performance, which, being more complex, is also athletically more difficult and harder to time to the music–which he hit, again and again and again. All of you were moved by Johnny, I understand, I loved him in Torino and saw echos of that here, but I was moved as much and more by Takahashi.
27 Save Skating // Feb 21, 2010 at 1:10 am

You can split hairs every which until you turn blue in the face. That’s what the new judging system does … find a way to rationalize every prejudice. Imperfect edge … changed directions … BS!!! Johnny Weir had THE cleanest and most inspiring performance of the night. The crowd thought so. Olympic champion Robin Cousins thought so. Commentators everywhere raved about it. Only those judges saw fit to bury this performance with scores mailed in a year ago. Whatever they watched was not what the rest of us did.

Read more: http://savefigureskating.blogspot.com/2010/02/performance-of-night-buried-in-politics.html
28 Robert // Feb 21, 2010 at 9:01 am

Johnny Weir was robbed on the short program, and then on the long program. He should have been at least 4th and I personally would have given him at least the bronze medal.
29 Chris // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:12 am

I liked Takahashi very much, was entertained and impressed with him, but not moved by him. I was moved and truly inspired by Johnny and so was the world.
30 chandler20 // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:26 am

Chris, point granted…clean programs mean more at the Olympics too, I guess. I know people who gave Evan a standing ovation even though they said they didn’t find him inspiring, because they thought he deserved a reward for being entirely clean. But Johnny, Evan, Daisuke and Evgeny could all be in a four-way tie as far as I’m concerned. It’s giving me a headache trying to iron it out.
31 Chris // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:47 am

Chandler - thanks for your novellas, but I think we get your POV. Stop trying to iron it out!
32 Chris // Feb 21, 2010 at 10:48 am

Johnny Weir is the Maria Callas of men’s figureskating.
33 chandler20 // Feb 21, 2010 at 11:32 am

Okay, okay, I give up, I’ve got to leave this thread alone and do something else.
34 Steph // Feb 21, 2010 at 1:39 pm

lol…chandler, I’m on your side. I was rooting for Daisuke therefore I think he deserved the bronze medal even though he fell and I was really hoping he would land the quad and get gold. So actually, this Olympics was terribly disappointing for me too.

Weir fans are justly upset at the scoring (it is always going to be subjective no matter what we say to “justify” one skater’s higher marks than another’s), and if I was rooting for Johnny, I probably would be pissed he was placed below 3 skaters who fell or almost fell on their jumps, quad or no quad. I’m sad I will not get to see Weir skate in the exhibition. I hope he continues skating professionally, and I have a feeling we are going to continue seeing a lot of him in the future.
35 IceObsessed // Feb 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm

And this is why, although it certainly was imperfect and subject to corruption, I believe 6.0 rewarded what (to most true/longtime skating fans) is most important in the sport.

In my sight, Johnny was the best and most beautiful that night. He’s always beyond gorgeous, but he really brought it to this Olympics and delivered the technical goods that he’s been struggling with in the last quadrennium.

Technically speaking, his programs were not the most difficult in the competition, but the overall package was there. His short really should’ve been no worse than third, and his long was the best of the night overall in my opinion. 6.0 would have rewarded that. Code of Points seems to be about how much you can flail your arms and clutter up step sequences with ugly pointless “choreography” (if I see Evan Lysacek do one more Besti squat, I’ll be sorely tempted to take a skate blade to a certain portion of his anatomy).

This isn’t the first time he’s been left off a podium because the judges were afraid or loath to give it to him (2004 Worlds, anyone?). I was really proud of the way he’s handled this though. He’s a class act.
36 Batgirl // Feb 24, 2010 at 9:37 pm

Robbing Johnny Weir by underscoring BOTH programs has tarnished the reputation of the judges and ruined Taka’s bronze, which he obviously knows should have gone to Johnny. Two fantastic athletes cheated by a bunch of powercrazed ninnies, one of the medal he deserved, the other of the honour of deserving the medal he got.
37 Badestkty // Feb 25, 2010 at 7:57 pm

Yes, Johnny was robbed. And how special for Elvis to write that he thought Weir was underscored, while trying to get effeminate skaters out of the sport. Is it me, or is Elvis a bit oxymoronic?
38 JC // Feb 26, 2010 at 4:19 pm

I’m not a figure skating expert but while Johnny should have finished 3rd in the free skate, Takahashi had a big lead after the short program–essentially he was tied with Plushy & Lysacek going in. Yes, he fell, but he fell on an element that (AFAIK) Johnny has never even attempted in competition, and they tend not to punish people as much for falling on exceptionally hard maneuvers.
39 Anon // Feb 28, 2010 at 12:15 am

“Robbing Johnny Weir by underscoring BOTH programs has tarnished the reputation of the judges and ruined Taka’s bronze, which he obviously knows should have gone to Johnny. Two fantastic athletes cheated by a bunch of powercrazed ninnies, one of the medal he deserved, the other of the honour of deserving the medal he got.”

Please! Takahashi is thrilled with his medal and I’m sure feels no guilt whatsoever over it. He knows he earned it, and I highly doubt he feels inferior to Johnny Weir, of all skaters (who has never landed a clean quad in competition and only talks about including the quad while rarely attempting it).

In the past four years, Johnny has beaten Takahashi only three times, and all three times was when Takahashi completely bombed while Johnny skated relatively well. In Worlds 2008 despite Takahashi’s bomb, the only reason why Johnny placed ahead by a point is because Takahashi did too many combos! The difference in their scores has nothing to do with Johnny’s flamboyance and his off-ice antics. Takahashi is just a better skater, period.
40 TheTruth // Mar 3, 2010 at 3:23 pm

Batgirl you are a fool if you think Takahashi feels his bronze is tained since he knows it should have gone to Johnny. Only delusional Johnnytards think he deserved a medal. There are many on the other hand who feel Takahashi could have been given the gold over both Lysacek and Plushenko who were both grossly overmarked. Takahashi was if anything undermarked, 2 ridiculous flutz calls, a questionable UR, an underscored SP compared to Plushenko and Lysacek. I am sure Takahashi not only feels he deserves his medal, but might feel he deserves better but is too classy to say so. The only argument is maybe Weir deserving 4th but there is a good argument for his being 6th too. He skated his best and Lambiel and Chan were far from theirs but they are flat out better skaters than he is with more difficulty, better artistry, better spins and footwork, so their base mark to begin with is higher.
41 oscat // Mar 4, 2010 at 11:27 pm

..Not falling doesn’t always get you a medal, its the degree of difficulty of your program.that supposedly gets one on the podium
Its the Canadian figure skating organization that was allegedly been trying to “toughen” up the skaters not Canadians themselves.Remember it was a predominently Canadian audience who gave Weir the ovation he received. Gays in Canada have all same equal rights by law as a hetrosexual, that of course doesn’t necessarily irradicate all homophobia but it is getting easier for gays here. . The judges, of course are international but then anyone involved in figure skating should be comfortable around gay men as there seems to be an abundance of them involved in this sport. Weir isn’t the only gay man in the top 10 skaters, so I’m not entirely sure if that was a valid reason for his not medalling , although his costume might not have helped him that much
Canada’s Toller Cranston had the same problem 25 yrs ago. He was very “artistic” skater with flamboyant costumes and had a hard time making the podium although the audience loved him. So it is a possibllity things haven’t changed that much since then and there is still a prejudice against a more artistic skater. Hopefully this will disappear by the next olympics
42 Ann // Sep 7, 2011 at 4:39 pm

And I just can’t watch Johnny Weir until such time as he does his routine entirely in drag. I could take that, because the entire picture would be in harmony–in balance.

Otherwise, if you look like a man, then dress like one and act like one (men can look graceful without adopting most of the feminine “look’). To do otherwise is to disrupt the overall picture. And I hate something–anything out of balance.

Perhaps the judges just couldn’t focus on JW’s skating being too distracted as it were on his mannerisms and attire.

Too bad really because I have nothing whatever against Mr. Weir, himself. It’s that the picture he paints strikes in me a dissonant chord.
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