#skating god

[penstotheend]

i’m sure he’d have rather been playing in the scrimmage....  but i enjoyed just getting to watch him skate and shoot for 20 minutes....  it was awesome....

[monster-battle]

Lambiel~ 💖 ⛸

[almost-ice-princess-blog]

Skating God, please make my parents let me go to the next Grand Prix Final in Barcelona!

[icekitten]

What Johnny Weir's competitive career has meant to me...

Like Johnny cried through composing his retirement statement, the tears stream down my cheeks as I write this.

I’ve been an avid figure skating fan since I was five years old and saw the 1988 Winter Olympics on TV. Though without the advent of Ice Network or even the internet, I didn’t follow every single event as avidly as I have in the past 10 years or so. The drama and artistic aspect of figure skating captivated me and kept its hold all these years. It is my constant and I am eternally grateful to have lived through what I deem the golden age of figure skating and worshiped male skaters like Boitano, Wylie, Browning and others. But no one has made such an impact on my appreciation of the sport than the fantastic and incomparable Johnny Weir.

I first laid eyes upon Johnny in the 2001/2002 season, during US Nationals and then again at 4CC (where he really caught my eye), I hadn’t followed his junior career or junior skating much in general, but I was aware of his Junior World Champion status. When I finally saw the man behind the remarkable achievement, he appeared to me as this lanky, skinny and somewhat gawky youngster, though he was only a year younger than me. I had no idea what to expect from his skating and wasn’t the most optimistic when it came to the state of US Men’s skating at the time, but when he began to glide across the ice, I was completely spellbound by his ease and grace. It was as if he had been born on the ice. Dick Button summed it up perfectly when he said Johnny skated like liquid gold. Needless to say, it was love at first sight for me.

The more Johnny’s personality shined and the more his skating evolved over the years, the more I fell madly and hopelessly in love with him. He inspired me in so many ways: he was my artistic muse, motivated me to stay in shape, watching old videos of his best performances cheered me up when I was having a bad day, he gave me someone to root for and believe in when all my favorite skaters had retired, and he made me so fiercely proud to be an American. 

There are countless adjectives I’ve used to describe his skating over the years: sublime, graceful, transcendent, inspired, artistic, stunning, mesmerizing, magical, angelic, smooth, flowing, entertaining etc., but no mere word could ever do justice to what he creates on the ice. And no one will ever match the ease and ride out of his 3A, the grace of his movement and the depth of his soul. He will always be one of the brightest stars in the figure skating annals.

Through the triumphs and the tumbles from grace, the brilliant programs and the not so brilliant moments, the biased commentary and the unjust scores, the heartbreak, the sublime jubilation, the sparkles and the tears; joyous and devastating alike, I’ve been on this journey with Johnny. To hear the official word of his retirement breaks my heart, as it’s the end of an era. There are so many hopes, dreams and medals that I wanted for him and that he was robbed of, and he so justly deserved. Yet time moves forward, the next generation rises up, but the memories always remain and I will never forget a single competitive skate from Johnny Weir. All great stories come to an end, and despite the lack of a few titles in his full trophy case, his story was an epic and masterfully written one.

I cannot lament the injustice of Vancouver forever, and he won that Olympic gold in so many of our hearts. Those games and his flawless performances propelled Johnny from star to legend, despite not going home with the hardware he deserved. In so many other ways Johnny’s dreams have come true on and off the ice, he became a full-blown celebrity, he found the love of his life and got married, he has a fashion line and designs costumes for other skaters, wrote a book, had his own documentary and reality show, and more twitter followers than any figure skater in history. He has such a brilliant and creative mind, I believe he can achieve anything. I look forward to his career as a figure skating broadcaster for NBC, a show skater and whatever he chooses to do with his life in the future. 

His influence on the next generation is also undeniable. Because of the path Johnny forged the future of figure skating is full of individuals who aren't afraid to be unique and true to themselves. So many talented young skaters like Yuzuru Hanyu, Jason Brown, Misha Ge, and countless others aspire to be like Johnny. I see more male ice skaters that want to emulate him than any other figure skater of the past. He is their idol and forever mine as well. He will always be my beautiful ice angel and no one will ever own my heart like he has. Bless you Johnny Weir.