ALEX SAYS: JOHNNY BE GOOD, JOHNNY BE ROBBED
According to Riese, I am Autostraddle’s “glamorous-gay-man correspondent“…
“You’re our expert on men who wear shiny things and like other boys!”
..so I must write about Johnny Weir and how he was snubbed by the judges at tonight’s Olympic mens figure skating long program. Why? Cause he’s gay. Yeah. I said it. ‘CAUSE HE’S GAY. Okay, maybe not. I am just going to throw something out there: Lady Gaga, bisexual queer supporter often accused of having extra private parts, lost a Grammy (we shall not dwell) and Adam Lambert, our gay boyfriend, lost American Idol and hai it wasn’t too long ago that Kim Stolz lost America’s Next Top Model and Ashley lost Top Chef and I lost my puppy and Riese came in third at the Science Fair in Second Grade. GAY. GAY.
Listen, I’m not knowledgeable about figure skating nor am I claiming to be. But I’m pretty knowledgeable about twitter and trending topic “Johnny Weir” made me feel better about life. The consensus was clear: Johnny was fucking robbed.
Is it just because the people on twitter are cooler than the average social networker? I’m confused. There is an overwhelming display of love for this crazy/candid/flamboyant skater fairy. And I love it.
I’m not saying Weir should’ve won gold. Bronze would’ve been nice and even 4th place is so close it’s satisfying. But come on, 6th place? Gawker’s article (which has the whole video of Johnny’s performance) said it well:
“He skated it beautifully. It was dramatic, it was acrobatic, it was genuine, it was emotional, and—according to the judges—it was good enough for sixth place.”
This was the live-tweeting from USA Today’s Christine Brennan:
11:57 p.m. ET: Johnny #Weir! Clean, no falls. Wow. Where did that come from? He almost quit last year? A medal for him now? It’s possible.
11:52 p.m. ET: #Weir up now. He can win a medal with a strong long program. It’s sitting there for him.
Right…
Evidence-schmevidence you guys, it’s cause they’re gay and gay-like and we all know it.
But you know what DO you get when you’re too fabulous for real life and its silly (yet reassuring) accolades?
A reality show:
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(No objections here!)
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SAME SEX OLYMPICS:
Is the world ready for same-sex figure skating? “In figure skating, as in much of the rest of life, we seem to have a two-track mind: either you are in a boy-girl couple or you are alone. But that’s all in our heads. In our real lives, we have our solo acts, our boy-girl events, our same-sex ties, and our groups.” (@psychologytoday)
In other Olympics news, OutSports has a feature on 5 out lesbians participating in the Winter Olympics this year. (@outsports)
GAY LICENSE PLATE:
An Oklahoma student is suing his state’s tax commission over its rejection of his request to put the words “I’m Gay” on his license plate. The student argues that the denial violates his First Amendment rights, and that it represents a double standard because license plates with messages such as STR8FAN and STR8SXI have been approved in the past. (@wallstreetjournal)
STRIPPING:
FourFour has a full-on multimedia extravaganza on his blog after discovering the 1986 documentary “Stripper.” Animated GIFs within! (@fourfour)
RACE & LGBT HEALTH:
A new article examining the health care hurdles facing LGBT Americans of color: “For people of color, a lack of affordable health care and insurance and culturally competent service providers—along with persistent racism in society—are some of the largest causes of health disparities. An LGBT person of color faces the combined impact of these barriers, increasing the likelihood of negative health outcomes.” (@racewire)
MOMMY ISSUES:
Two new studies show that not only are parents responsible for how you look, they may have a hand in whether or not you ever find true love. Can I just add how disturbing it is that this Telegraph UK article chose a photo of Jennifer Aniston, of all possible images to accompany this “unlucky in love” article? WTF does this woman have to do to get a break? (@telegraphuk)
RACHEL MADDOW:
Rachel Maddow will deliver the commencement address at Smith College this spring and the women lost their shit during the announcement:
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I totally agree…I’m a straight chick .. honestly Johnny Wier skated a beautiful program. You could feel the passion and emotion he puts into it…
They rated him low… on purpose.
Much like Gaga, Weir is known for his passionate performance and often unorthodox costuming — he designed his own glitzy outfit, which incorporates bits of broken glass
I guess people just want to digg deeper about his personal life, huh? More details: http://bit.ly/johnny-weir-coveted-details
Speaking of Lady Gaga and Johnny Weir, may I present to you:
Gaga or Weir?
It used to be when a skater fell at anytime in their program it would cost them the podium. Now, if they are the favorite no matter how many errors, falls etc the judges will give them the points somehow. Maybe it is time to go back to compulsory patterns. Remember those days skating perfect circles,etc. The Olympic committee really needs to take a long look at all the videos and scores. Judges need to be above reproach, impartial and not prejudge anyone. Plushenko is too business like doesn’t put his heart into his program. Neither does Lysacek. Both only show it at the end. Johnny shows it all throughout. You feel him through the whole program. He was not judged for his performance on the ice, he was judged wrongly for who he is.
Johnny weir got robbed.Plushenko looked like if he was going to puke out there and got second. Johnny was awesome and gave his best.Go,go Johnny, go,go,go Johnny you are good.
Shame on Canada for allowing the judges to get away with what they did in front of millions of people. What a total sham.
Johnny Weir skated a much stronger program and is one of the most artistic skaters to ever grace the ice.
It is absolutely disgraceful what happened and I hope other people complain about it.
What was “Canada” supposed to do about it?
john weir was totally robbed smh and so was Gaga…
they just can’t take the gays being more fab and talented then them, so they give us mediocre reviews and give away our awards, but fuc*k them…they just wish they were gay…
#angrylesbian
gay license plate story has officially made me even more angry
goodnight
p.s good post
Johnny was indeed robbed. Skaters who actually fell still got higher points than he did. Disgraceful. Even the crowd knew he was robbed.
Johnny was Fantastic! I love him because he does Art.
God bless Johnny! Keep doing art, millons of people loves you. Johnny you are the best.You are my champion :)
.so I must write about Johnny Weir and how he was snubbed by the judges at tonight’s Olympic mens figure skating long program. Why? Cause he’s gay. Yeah. I said it. ‘CAUSE HE’S GAY. Okay, maybe not. I am just going to throw something out there: Lady Gaga, bisexual queer supporter often accused of having extra private parts, lost a Grammy (we shall not dwell) and Adam Lambert lost American Idol and hai it wasn’t too long ago that Kim Stolz lost America’s Next Top Model and when Ashley lost Top Chef and I lost my puppy and Riese came in third at the Science Fair in Second Grade. GAY. GAY. and why Andrea’s facebook was hacked into a few years ago.GAY GAY
k had to add my own personal section lol
I have never seen such tripe! Johnny landed every jump, as well as doing his rotations perfectly while Pleshenko blew every rotation, nearly falling on all but one jump which by then, we wondered if he’d forgotten HOW to do a Triple Lutz, Toe Loop or Twist! He had MANY errors in his program, and expectations for Johnny were EXCEEDED with his few, TINY flaws and Gorgeous performance. His stumble could’ve been part of the routine as it came right in the “Angel Falls” part of his show, followed by the Sorrow and Redemption parts which he ended on strongly enough to place AT LEAST ahead of Pleshenko, whose Quad was only worth 3 tenths of 1 point above Johhny’s Triple, and Pleshenko nearly fell on it’s landing! I think there must be some sort of appeal to the judges or the Olympic Committee about this obvious theft of Johnny’s Silver (or AT LEAST Bronze) Medal at the 2010 Contests, cooler and less DISCRIMINATIVE heads would’ve given Johnny the recognition he deserved for his fabulous shows, he really brought it. And Johnny, if you read this: DON’T YOU DARE let these !@#KERS drive you away from your calling which is to take Gold one day! You’d best hear me: don’t give them the satisfaction; work even harder and beat them in their stuffy, wide-assed seats!!!
ooo you seem to know a thing or two (more than me) about figure skating! Thanks for your opinion and for going a little more in-depth about the scoring and all that fancy stuff.
*reading the comments*
wow who would of known that lesbians were so passionate about ice skating…lol
skaters who fell also got the deductions they deserve and skating obviously isn’t just about jumping…they got higher points for their technical steps but i agree, johnny weir is a genius, he deserves some place higher..3rd or 4th maybe…
Yeah, I think if he had ended the night at 4th it would have been much more fair. There was so much heart and artistry, he is a genius there. I hate when the others pump their programs full of quad jumps and hardly focus on transitions and footwork and dance. Then they get more points even though it wasn’t well-rounded.
I’m definitely suspicious. But don’t forget that the scores are cumulative (short program + free skate) so even though he may have done wonderfully tonight (and he did) he was brought down by his low score from his short program where he didn’t do quite as well.
Are you serious? Hate crime?!?!? I hate to break the news to you, but if every queer figure skater that doesn’t win is the victim of a hate crime that entire sport is one big hate crime against humanity. He didn’t lose because he was a fruit, he lost because he wasn’t as good as the other fruits. Wake up.
jog on, sir.
hey there’s this thing called “hyperbole” and this other thing called “sarcasm,” check it.
Can I borrow your Taylor Swift CD? I left mine in my bible.
if johnny weir was a fruit, he would be a starfruit
Yes,
This is not Canada’s fault. It’s the fault of the Olympic Committee, they set the standards for judging. Canada is one of the most liberal countries in the world, we were one of the first to legalize gay marriage nationally.
Also, I hardly think this is actually a gay rights issue. IT’S MENS FIGURE SKATING HELLOOOOOO. Any judge that came into this with homophobic prejudices must live in a bubble.
The issue with judging figure skating based on artistry it’s entirely subjective and personal. Figure skaters are awarded points based on the pre decided difficulty of the moves, and the skill in executing them. Weir likely evoked the most emotion with his routine, but probably skated at a lower level.
The Olympics are such a televised and universal event, that it would be pretty risky to discriminate like that. The judging doesn’t allow for a lot of personal opinion.
I’d also like to point out that these Vancouver olympics have TWO LGBT Pavilions. This isn’t “Canada”‘s issue with prejudice.
@Boner Jones
How did you find this site anyways? You don’t seem to be a regular reader. Were you googling Johnny Weir? If you think figure skating is for fruits why were you searching his name?
And why was you watching it in the first place. You must have been if you know that the other fruits as you call them was skating better then him.
Are you a self hating closeted figure skating fan?
What happened to my picture?
johnny was totally robbed. i have never watched men’s skating before & been remotely interested, until this year. lysacek was gorgeous & clearly a gold winner. but johnny’s skate was different — he moved FAR beyond performance – and moved the audience to their feet (!). he brought poetry to motion; literally. for style, he ate up the russian’s quad & left him with nothing to land on.
IMO — lysacek – gold; johhny – silver; and the russion – bronze — for that little jump that means too much.
I cannot tell you how upset I was over Weir’s scoring. Stephane (4th) who fell on his butt, was scored higher than Weir. Chan who stumbled and FELL (3rd) was sored higher than Weir. Lysacek went out there and kick butt, granted but Weir deserved to medal – Bronze for sure, Silver a bit pushing it. It’s NOT becuase he’s GAY, because there are tons of Gay males in Figure Skating – the judges knows it, the coaches know it, and if you ask me the one won the Gold knows it. It’s about Johnny’s mouth, and some of those judges didn’t know how to socre on merit, just their ego.
When I jokingly asked my father why he was watching hockey instead of figure skating his response was, “I won’t watch that. I boycott it. The judging is always so crooked.” Now I’m beginning to think he had the right idea.
word.
Much as I’d like to lasso the gay conspiracy bandwagon and hoik myself aboard, I think the truth is a rather more mundane combination of the fact that Weir didn’t do the really tricky stuff, and the judges always seem to have bizarre interpretations of the artistic side of things, usually at odds with public perception.
All the numbers are up at http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-figure-skating/schedule-and-results/men-free-skating_fsm010101eh.html if you’re particularly bothered.
Anyway, justice was served in denying Plushenko gold, as punishment for his ice skating gimmick when Russia won Eurovision in 2008.
On seconds thoughts, I would prob jump on the gay conspiracy bandwagon anyway, because that’s where the party’s at.
I kinda agree with you Sally. However, I’m not jumping on the gay conspiracy bandwagon. If this gay conspiracy is true then why was Greg Louganis a multi gold olympic diver in the 1970 and 80’s when people were more prudish…and he was HIV positive..Johnny was awesome his routine just didn’t have the technical difficulty that the others had. Most importantly he was humble and honest in defeat that is to be admired.
the gay conspiracy bandwagon is just a fancy name for a party where we are all making funny jokes
if you can’t do basic stuff perfectly, and only barley make it through the quads etc. then you don’t deserve a medal.
quality over quantity yo
I am sure that Johnny would have won the Rinny Tinn Tin Medal at the Frisk Frisco Games.
I have a lot of feelings about this bullshit that went down last night. CNN breaking news alert ruined the suprise of who got gold for me hours before it aired on the west coast.. But I was certain Johnny would at least score well. He was positively breathtaking and beautiful. It was actually quite insulting the way they scored him.
I was out of town with my girlfriend this weekend and the truth is… I really missed you, Autostraddle. You’re like the lady I keep on the sly that really understands my feelings.
also smith college went b-a-n-a-n-a-s!
I’m a straight chick, and quite frankly, I do believe Johnny skates with a passion that none of the other skaters have. I love watching him, my heart races, and with each jump, I raise my hands almost to make sure he nails it…lol Johnny Weir is a true gold medalist, who no matter what he does or how well he does it, is robbed by judges, who would rather give a medal to some dude who falls down during the program.
BOO! to the judges!!!!! KISSES and KUDOS to JOHNNY WEIR!!!!!
Job WELL DONE!!!!!!!
riese, congrats on your science fair bronze. sucks that you were hated on but at least you made the podium. that’s more than poor johnny can say.
here’s the thing — everyone in the science fair got first, second, third or fourth. everyone. blue ribbons, red ribbons, so on. so there were like a few first people, a ton of seconds, and then people like me got third. wtf. i hated science, but i also wasn’t used to losing anything besides sports. sad moment. i’m lucky i made it through that rain to the other side where here i am today
got through to the other side and became autowin, as to never lose again.
Am I the only one that thought it was weird (but kinda cute) that Smith had an assembly of sorts to make this announcement? I haven’t been to an assembly since high school. Hehe. At my school, I think the school’s newspaper reported on the speaker and that’s how I learned who the speaker was.
I will respectfully (emphasis on the respectfully) disagree about Johnny Weir being robbed in the free skate last night. I’m totally with you on the fact that his skated a beautiful program that was, the exception of a minor bobble on one of the spins, pretty perfect. And if we were going to award medals based on fluidity and grace he would SO TOTALLY be my number one guy.
But it isn’t. And, in fact, his score of 156 last night was his highest score EVER in the sport of ice skating, according to the ISU’s website. His previous best, with the same routine, was 152.76 at the ISU Grand Prix in December, where he placed third. So I think that, regardless of everything else, he has a lot to be proud of.
I love Weir as much as everyone else, but I also sometimes feel that everyone suddenly becomes an expert on all of these sports when it comes to the Olympics (myself included, for sure), but that we have to take a step back with our feelings and look at some empirical evidence, on occasion.
Also, everyone should totes look up the UK’s ice dancing team on youtube – in their long program not only do they dance to Linkin Park, but the woman lifts the guy!! One of the greatest things I’ve seen in my entire life.
Woah, my comment didn’t show up, which is totally disappointing because I don’t think I can remember everything I wrote.
Any reason for this, in particular??
I feel like Johnny is caught up in a lot of politics. I think if the media has taught us anything recently (GaGa backlash, Adam Lambert losing American Idol, basically everything you listed…), being different is fine, and being sparkly is great, but don’t expect it to help you win anything.
Not the same level of technical difficulty? HOG WASH! Stephane Lambiel touched down on his quad and had NO triple axles…and went on to muff all his jumps, skate a stiff program where even his famous spins were off-kilter and slower than usual. And yet, he was rated 4th!
Johnny had two triple axles, one in a combination jump, and he landed both perfectly. He also did a triple lutz, Triple Toe combination and landed that perfectly. He completed one of his triple axle combinations with his arms arched beautifully over his head…very difficult to do…and no one else did that, btw.
So what if that was his highest score ever. Does anybody really believe that last night was the first time Johnny got screwed by the judges…the same judges known to collude on scores and to be utterly corrupt?
Not to mention that Johnny himself has emphasized since 2006 that the new scoring system punishes artistic presentation.
He was ROBBED, plain and simple.
Come on man. Just because there are a few gays competing and then they don’t win first prize, you say it’s because they are gay. That’s like saying all the redneck’s that didn’t get first prize because they’re rednecks.
Get over yourselves. Just the fact that there are so many prominent gays in contention considering the percentage of gays in the population, should make you happy.
Claiming discrimination at this point just brings you down man.
Come on. I thought you all were above that and above us clowns.
Toby the Redneck
Sarcasm, Toby! The gay thing was a liiiiittle sarcastic.
But also, we can’t be above “you clowns” if we can’t ever win anything! Maybe I’m just still a little raw over the Grammy album of the year thing…
I’m just happy we have a self-proclaimed redneck reading and commenting — are you coming back?! TOBY!
Come on, alex. Come on, man! Do rednecks use come on.. all the time?
Anyway, I love this. I mean, I don’t know shit about ice skating but I definitely thought he deserved a higher spot than 6th. Especially since the bronze medalist almost completely fell over (I think it was the bronze medalist).
I would watch his television show and love it.
[http://deadspin.com/tag/euphemizingjohnnyweirsgayness/]
Found this when I was browsing tumblr’s last night..hahah. My life is exciting.
His television show is legitimately awesome! I started watching it this week. The promos make it seem like one big gay spectacle but in actuality, the show’s quite nuanced; Johnny is portrayed as a legitimately hardworking athlete and “real” person (as my mom’d say, meaning that he comes off as human) as well as Johnny Weir the Pink-Ribboned Persona.
Re: last night, yeah, he was robbed. Not entirely due to his, to quote the media’s most common euphemism, “flamboyance,” because there were technical reasons he didn’t medal (as Travcm says below). But his sparkly presentation’s definitely a reason why he placed as low as he did, I think. All you have to do is listen to the commentary during his short program on Tuesday and the subtle bias against Weir seems pretty noticeable.
I’m not seeing much knowledge about skating being displayed here.
First off, Weir’s total potential technical score was lower than the programs of Takahashi, Lysacek, and Plushenko. This isn’t apparent for the average viewer who doesn’t know the difference between an axle and a lutz. Despite that, Weir was nearly flawless in both the short and long programs. I felt like he was underscored by 4-6 points in the short program and another 4-5 points in the long. His skating is beautiful.
As for the theories on why he got underscored? Well, saying it’s because he’s gay or flamboyant is pretty ridiculous. Figure skating is full of both rumored and openly gay men who haven’t suffered the same fate. I think, if anything, Johnny’s past criticism of judges came into play. The scoring differential was combination of other skaters being given too many points (so many personal best scores) and Johnny being overly scrutinized by the judges.
He should have been 4th after the SP and passed Daisuke (who was gutsy and went for the quad, but failed) after the LP. That means Johnny would have gotten a bronze. Regardless of how you look at it, he would not have been silver or gold. The level of difficulty in his program was not high enough.
Guys, when I said the gay thing I was a little sarcastic. Or maybe a lot sarcastic.
I got excited that we could relate this to other losses our gays and gay-friendly heroes have endured this past year (as mentioned.)
Obviously there’s no proof and I’m just making a ridiculous statement.
I’m sure there are a lot of reasons Johnny got such a shit score on such a terrific (and almost flawless) performance.
Yes, it was a little sarcastic, but you did have a valid point. Maybe if we all say that the judges may have scored him lower because he is UNCONVENTIONAL, that would go over better.
How’s that, Redneck and Boner?
People are not ok with unconventional yet, and unfortunately some gay (Adam L.) and gay supporting (Gaga) people often fall under “unconventional”. Gay will eventually be more mainstream and conventional and then we can all be happy and win all sorts of things!!
am i the first to comment on how great the title of this article is? Johnny Weir Be Good = AWESOME title yo.
skating judging IS corrupt. like remember the time in salt lake city when they had to give out TWO gold medals in ONE event, because the whole entire world etc. agreed that the judges robbed a canadian pair? so i am just going to listen to lady gaga now and think about how great johnny was.
also, i am reading this book right now (cc: rachelwashere) about lgbt AND race issues in the 50’s/60’s in SF, called The Story of a Marriage and it is SO good you guys. you should all read it and join my email book club or something.
best liz phair reference ever? maybe.
My little brother’s name is johnny wier (diff. spelling) and he’s gay and fabulous too! Maybe he can get some sort of spinoff show for being an awesome gay boy who shares his name with this slightly more famous gay boy?
Probs not, but i might pretend I’m related to the skater johnny weir anyway.
The Judges message is clear:No Openly gay or HONEST athlete will be allowed to win a medal ever.
So if u have children who are interested in this sport and they happen t be gay forget it u just wasted your life and theirs because you have no chance of winning if you do not stay in the closet.
What a great message to the world the olympic judges have sent. STAY IN THE CLOSET..DO NOT TELL THE TRUTH AND KISS OUR BUTTS
What the olympic judges did last night was tell everyone that if your openly gay and tell the truth 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 loweer 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.
I was pretty surprised he didn’t get at least 4th place and the BBC commentators seemed shocked at his score. I just loved how whilst waiting for the scores he was wearing a crown of roses and refused to take them off.
I think the judges should have an extra category of scoring with marks for fabulousness and emotion/feelings.
maybe he was scored a little on the low side, but the routine choreography wasn’t very good. He didn’t have alot of transitions or footwork between elements, which means he is going to get a low component score.
Do any Canadian Autostraddle readers remember Jamie Sale and David Pelletier? Or does anyone for that matter remember the figure skating pairs competition in Salt Lake City in 2002? How the Russians “beat” the Canadians, the controversy with the one French judge and how she was influenced to mark the Russians higher, how the Russians were able to keep their gold medals but the Canadians were later given gold medals by the IOC, too. How a flawless but less difficult routine lost out to more difficult but not well-executed routine. How this resulted in the new (more technical) International Skating Union (ISU) judging system we have now, the one that replaced the 6.0 system that equally rewarded skaters for technical merit, required elements, and presentation. After the judging system for figure skating having remained largely unchanged for over a century, it has undergone a major overhaul in just the last 6 years. Granted, that’s enough time for all skaters to become used to it but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. How quickly we forget these things… anyway.
The truth is, Johnny Weir had the best performance and he had a nearly flawless routine. It wasn’t the most challenging routine ever but what he did was no child’s play – it was an Olympic-level routine. It’s kind of a silly argument to say that the gold and silver medalists’ routines were more difficult. Correction: they tried to do more difficult routines and didn’t execute; they stumbled even if they didn’t fall (not to mention none of them had the heart nor the emotion of Weir). For me, it’s deja vu, all the way back from 2002. How Weir didn’t get the gold or at least medal is beyond comprehension. The only thing that could have made this competition worse was if the Russian had somehow overtaken Lysacek. And what’s this about him scoring his personal best? Excuse me, he was competing against other skaters (whom he clearly outperformed) not himself.
I could blame the judges, I could say he lost because he’s gay. If anything, I can blame the scoring system. But I won’t. Johnny Weir represents the true essence of the sport and is humble while doing what he loves. He had the performance of a lifetime and if all he has to show for it is a rousing standing ovation at the Olympics, then so be it. That’s a consolation prize worthy of a true champion.
I didn’t forget! And as a Canadian, have to say: I was embarrassed by Sale and Pelletier’s whining. Yeah, they might have deserved gold (it was a *lot* closer than people have made it out to be), but figure skating judging has *always* been arbitrary and biased, and really, S&P knew it, competing for as long as they did and at the level that they did. I would have been buttons-busting proud of a silver medal received with grace and good sportsmanship, and then a forward-looking eye towards the improvement of the judging system. Instead S&P participated in and encouraged a collective temper tantrum until they got a sham “double gold”, which only made further mockery of their sport, which was already on rather shaky ground with the scandal. (Can you imagine if it had been the other way around and the Russians had tried to pull that shit in America?)
Fortunately, we still have curling as the last bastion of the legendary “Canadian sportsmanship”.
Having already ranted about the men’s free skate ad nauseum, I now choose to look on the bright side, and it is this: that the be-mulleted (yet ironically arrogant) Plushenko, he of the flailing arms and awkward, hip-thrusting attempts at “sexiness,” was denied the gold medal that he came out of retirement solely to presumptuously snatch from more deserving (and less embarrassing) competitors. (Heh. “Snatch”.)
Furthermore, shed no tears for Johnny Weir! He has two gorgeous Olympic performances (complete with a ‘Tano jump!), all our darling gay hearts, and the illustrious company of my beloved Kurt Browning–four-time World Champion, the first man to land a quad in competition (1988, bitches! Can’t touch this, Plushy!), wearer of Flame Pants–who also never medalled in any of the three Olympics in which he competed. And what higher praise, really? What higher praise?
With that said, JOHNNY WEIR WAS ROBBED. Not of a medal, exactly–the scoring system’s still wonky, but it’s slightly less arbitrary than it used to be–but of the points he deserved. Furthermore, in light of recent attempts in North America (and particularly in Canada) to “butch up” men’s figure skating–Stojko nattering on about it, Skate Canada’s attempt to draw in the “hockey crowd” (srsly, here’s a link, http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=7473728&page=1), the American media parading Lysacek and Tanith Belbin around all “LOOK IT’S A GIRL AND SHE’S HIS GIRLFRIEND FOR REAL! I BET HE STICKS HIS TONGUE IN HER MOUTH AND OTHER THINGS ELSEWHERE TOO! HOW EXTREMELY MANLY OF HIM!”–I don’t think it’s totally far-fetched to suggest that Johnny is being publicly sanctioned just a little, not so much because he’s gay, but because of the blatant, unrepentant, utterly stunning WAY that he’s gay: it presents an unapologetic challenge to established paradigms of North American masculinity. I know you meant it sarcastically, Alex, but I’d hazard there’s a kernel of truth in there somewhere, too; the fact that figure skating is actually JUDGED by people, not only on technical finesse but on artistic merit itself–rather than decided by who crosses a line first or puts a ball in a net–makes it implicitly arbitrary and inherently dictated by subjective biases and prejudices, regardless of scoring systems and alleged objectivity.
I could rail on about the Code of Points and the IOC and why I think this and that and how difficult it is to throw up that ‘Tano arm…but I’m tired and have work to do and Olympics to watch and an exam to cram for and hot girls to creep on facebook.
Didn’t we already have a judging scandal in ice skating a few years ago? I mean ffs.
Speaking as someone who used to participate in a judged sport like that (synchronized swimming), I can say that judging is such a crapshoot and all depends on who knows you and who likes you. I had certain judges who always, without fail, judged me a full point lower than the rest because I wasn’t “serious” enough or some crap like that. (Screw you, I’ll swim my solo to the Star Trek theme if I want to! HAH!) It was SUCH baloney.
Things autostrad commenters get all caps lock about: Tswift, ice skating. I’m sure some wider analysis of humanity could be drawn from this.
Possibly that Autostraddle has very good SEO – I’m guessing a lot of these commentors aren’t really in A/S’s demographic but came here from a Google search.
also is it just me or does Johnny Weir look like an early-days Clay Aiken?
I don’t know anything about Johnny Weir, but I would just like to say that it is a source of much contention and moping that Smith gets Rachel Maddow while at Mills we have Nancy Pelosi. I’ve heard a few girls talk about transferring just because of that and I’ve also heard that we tried for Ellen but were denied.
Also, lol at assemblies and can anyone tell me what’s up with the funny hats? Special occasion or just fashion as usual at Smith? Regardless of what you say, I want to believe the latter…
While I’m happy for Patrick Chan (I’m Canadian, I have to be), I think Johnny Weir outskated him 100%. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Weir’s performance was medal worthy but it was no 6th place performance. However, these are the circumstances athletes deal with everyday. Officials are as much responsible in determining the winners as the actual athletes are. It sucks, but it’s true. You get an official that just doesn’t seem to like you, for whatever reason, winning is going to be damn hard.
Sundance gets brownie points for giving him a show.
WTF Oklahoma? Stop being a fuckass and give the kid his license plate.
It is not about his “unclear sexuality”.
(Ok, maybe a little.)
But he did not perform for the judges. He performed for the audience, the sport and himself——those people just can not apriciate PURE BEAUTY.
Very objective is enlightening.
Procurando por Empresa Técnica de Engenharia, Brasil – BR