SAN JOSE, Calif. — He came in looking like your average male figure skater on a comeback — if you think wearing a pearl brooch is average. Johnny Weir, the three-time U.S. champion and two-time Olympian, announced his skating comeback last week and told the media here at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships exactly why Friday.
Figure skating needs some flair. Well, with Weir, the world can count on that.
In a 45-minute session, Weir talked about a program that would combine Lady Gaga with Carmen, compared skating judges with flesh-eating algae and said he promised his coach that he wouldn’t do the quad if he got pregnant.
Yes, Heeeeeeere’s Johnny! is back.
He did show his serious side, though. Other than the brooch, his outfit was strictly mainstream in black slacks, black T-shirt, black sport coat and black leather shoes. Except for the beige shock in his jet black hair, Weir, 27, could’ve passed for a poster boy for corporate America.
He also had serious things to say about helping figure skating’s popularity problem. Ice shows are playing before dwindling crowds, and about the only skater outside northeast Asia to spark the world’s interest is Canada’s world champion, Patrick Chan.
“This comeback is important to push figure skating more into the public eye again,” Weir said. “We’ve obviously been in a lull. People don’t really watch or come to events.”
Since the fall Weir has been training in Hackensack, N.J., with famed Russian coach Galina Zmievskaya and is already doing all his triple jumps and triple combinations. If he loses 6 to 8 more pounds, he says, he’ll be ready to try a quad.
The comeback isn’t just for the sake of figure skating, he said. Since all but retiring after his sixth place at the Vancouver Olympics, he wrote a book, launched a clothing line and got married to lawyer Victor Voronov last month. With so many life goals achieved off the ice, he said he has a new outlook on life on the ice.
“Now that I’m coming back, it’s in a completely different mind frame as I realized that figure skating, while it is huge and while it’s the biggest part of my life, it isn’t everything.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
