Weir to work for NBC in Sochi; will keep mum on homophobic laws
By JULIET MACUR
It was just after 8 on Wednesday morning, and Johnny Weir looked - by his own assessment - “gorgeous.”
A tailored, double-breasted blazer with large gold crests at his cuffs showed off his tiny waist. Tight-fitting dark pants with thick tuxedo stripes made his legs look impossibly fit. His shiny brown hair looked as if it were in pin curls. In his hands he carried a big black Balenciaga purse.
He spun on his heels to show off his jacket. “Can you believe it? Vintage - $15 at a consignment store in Sun Valley!” he said. “I’m the same as always - fabulous!”
Weir’s purse could have held a pair of figure skates, but there won’t be any need for him to carry them to the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. On Wednesday morning, Weir announced that he was retiring from the sport after competing in two Olympics, winning three straight national championships and spending more than a decade in the sport’s spotlight.
His next performances will be as a figure skating analyst for NBC at the Games, an announcement that probably led some gay rights supporters to cheer. Weir is known for being outspoken, and there are those who think he would be a perfect ambassador for a gay rights cause in open conflict with a Russian law passed recently that makes it a crime to support “nontraditional” sexual orientation. Certainly Weir would speak out against what he described as a “terrible” law.
Now, Weir, not for the first time, may surprise everyone. Despite his sexual orientation, despite his marriage to a man in 2011, despite his long track record of (not always wisely) saying what is on his mind, Weir said Wednesday that he planned to hold his tongue in Sochi, at least when it comes to speaking out against the Russian law.
“I risk jail time just going there, but the Olympics are not the place to make a political statement,” he said. “I’m not a politician and I don’t really talk about politics. You don’t have to agree with the politics, but you have to respect the culture of a country you are visiting.”
Weir and NBC officials made clear that he was not simply toeing the company line. Jim Bell, the executive producer of NBC’s Olympic coverage, said the network had not - and would not - muzzle Weir. “When you peel back the Alexander McQueen,” Bell said in a fashion reference, “there is a really smart, bright guy who will be a great figure skating analyst.”
The United States Olympic Committee has said it does not agree with the Russian law but has encouraged its athletes to comply with the laws of the country. Weir agrees that there should be separation of politics and sports. And even though he can be flamboyant - he isn’t shy about wearing fur or skyscraper-high heels - he says that at heart he is an athlete first.
Boycotting the Games would be a tragedy, he argued, because of the personal cost for athletes who have trained for that moment. Weir pointed out that his parents emptied their bank accounts to pay for his coaching, his costumes and his travel for him to reach his Olympic goal, and noted that he doesn’t always look like a model. During workouts, he is makeup-free and sweaty, sometimes bruised and bloody after crashing to the ice attempting a difficult move.
“It’s pretty obvious that I’ve been gay my whole life,” he said as he gave himself a once-over. “I don’t need to break any laws or wear a rainbow pin to show people that I support gay rights.
“I think I’ll do that just by being in Sochi and supporting our people there and know they are not alone,” he added.
Weir is in a complicated position. Some of his gay peers - including his husband, Victor Voronov, a first-generation Russian-American - want him to speak out and “be more on the side of the gay team.” Others have vehemently disagreed with the way he has lived his life, like the way he waited until 2011 to acknowledge publicly that he was gay. Weir is sure that his extravagantly expensive Hermès Birkin bag was recently defaced by another gay man who took a marker to its orange leather and wrote an expletive.
“The gay community has not reacted well to me because some people think it’s my responsibility to be an activist,” Weir said. “They’re expecting me to hate Russia because I haven’t been given equal rights in Russia.”
Weir, a self-proclaimed Russophile, won’t do it. He speaks, reads and writes Russian, has had Russian coaches and has visited the country countless times. He’s a star there, often recognized on the street in a country that adores its figure skaters.
He loves Russia back. When he was 6 or 7, he said, he stumbled upon a book, “Russia and her States,” in his elementary school’s library. He checked it out again and again and fell in love with what was inside: stories of Anastasia and the czars, of white birch trees dusted with snow, of churches with colorful domes, and glamour - oh, the glamour - of people wrapped in furs. He plans to tour Russia with the Olympic gold medalist Yevgeny Plushenko after the Winter Games, a few months after Elton John is to perform in Moscow.
“If it’s good enough for Elton John, it’s good enough for me,” Weir said, adding, “Every country’s going to have its issues.”
Including his own. Weir pointed out that it was only on Monday that his adopted home state of New Jersey, where he and his husband live, legalized gay marriage.
What do you think? A few weeks ago Johnny Weir said he'd be willing to be arrested to bring attention to the anti-gay laws...
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