Johnny Weir Ready to Tackle the World's Best in Moscow
by Chi-Chi Zhang |
| Johnny Weir in practice Sunday, March 13 Photo by Michelle Wojdyla |
(3/13/05) — With the 2005 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow, Russia, beginning Monday, Johnny Weir looks and sounds like an athlete who is ready to challenge for the top spot. But to do so he will need to beat one of the best male skaters ever, Evgeny Plushenko, and he will have to do it on Plushenko's home ice.
But in this case, home ice might not be everything it is cracked up to be.
Weir, who finished fifth at last year's World Championships, has a special affinity for Russia, its skaters and its skating fans. In fact, he readily acknowledges that much of his skating style and attitude has its roots in the Russian tradition of skating, and his Russian choreographers, Tatiana Tarasova and Evgeny Platov, impart the tradition to him.
“I enjoy how they (Russian skaters) aren't afraid to take chances,” Weir said March 8. “They're not afraid of what people may think; in their music and costumes.”
Weir has made it clear to anyone who will listen that, for him, skating is not about sticking with the status quo – for him it's all about intuition and skating his very best. And skating his best is exactly what he appears to be doing right now.
Weir took gold in two of the three Grand Prix events in which he competed this season, and in January he won his second consecutive U.S. title. By his own account he is in the best shape of his life and has been landing at least seven out of eight quadruple toe jumps per day in practice (he remains unsure on whether or not he will attempt a quad at the World Championships, but says that if he does attempt one it will be the first or second jumping element of his free skate and will be part of a quadruple toe-triple toe-double loop combination).
His recent successes have made him confident going into the World Championships, but he is quick to assert that his main goal is to challenge himself, not to beat Plushenko, the three-time World champion whom Weir describes as an “amazing skater.”
“There are people that rival his artistry and there are also people that can rival his jumps, but the fact that he can package it so well, makes him someone to look up to,” Weir said. “He's the best technician in the world; I'm still a little bit in awe of him, but not scared.”
For Plushenko, Weir and all the skaters in the competition, this will mark the first World Championships in which the 6.0 judging system will not be in effect, as it has been replaced by the new judging system that was passed by the ISU Congress in 2004. The new judging system allows judges to rate on a more rigid system based on specific elements.
But the new system is the last thing on Weir's mind.
“I don't like to sit down and strategize, I like to go and skate,” Weir said. “I know what to expect…it comes with the territory of competing.
“But I'm still excited and a little bit nervous.”
No doubt, thousands of skating fans in Russia and around the world feel exactly the same way.
