Figure Skating Rivalry

As regular readers know, I enjoy figure skating – the roommates and I switched channels from watching the Super Bowl to the men’s European figure skating championships. The skaters were so HOT!! I have spent many an hour at ice rinks when my oldest daughter skated competitively at venues ranging from the University of Delaware figure skating complex to an invitational event in the tiny town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina (where we went to one of the mineral/mine outlet tourist stops and my former wife found a 1.2 carat emerald in some mine tailings – now referred to as the “Spruce Pine Emerald” and set in a ring for my daughter). Thus, I found this New York Times article on the competition between Johnny Weir and the much butcher Evan Lysacek. Having seen first hand how subjective and down right bitchy the United States Figure Skating Association (“USFSA”) judges can be, often who is the better skater matters less than who is the “favorite” and who conforms to the judges’ whims. Such being the case, it’s amazing that Weir and Lysacek tied for the U.S. Title with 244.77 points apiece, before the title went to Lysacek on a tie breaker. Personally, I will be rooting for Johnny. Here are some story highlights:

Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir share nothing — except their status as the top two figure skaters in the United States. The closest they ever hope to be is on a medal podium. Lysacek, who fashions himself a hard-core athlete, has won the last two United States national titles. Weir, an athlete into hard-core fashion, won the previous three. Lysacek favors skating’s jumps and stunts and can do without all the pomp, while Weir is one of the most hypnotically graceful male skaters.

Lysacek and Weir were set to face off again this weekend at the annual world championships in Goteborg, Sweden, but Lysacek had to withdraw after injuring his arm in a fall last week. They remain on a collision course for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver — accompanied by growing gaggles of fans who believe that loving one means hating the other, giving figure skating a rivalry of uncommon passion and depth.

In the normally placid enclave of figure skating, supporting either Evan Lysacek the Athlete or Johnny Weir the Artist has become a virtual referendum on matters from skating style and personal style to sexuality itself.

Weir’s outfits often sparkle like disco balls; in his short program he pretends to be a seagull. His total package has not only led to assumptions that he is gay — something not as taboo in figure skating as in other sports — but a controversy over his not being the right type of gay. During a figure skating broadcast last year, the announcer Mark Lund, who is openly gay, said, “I don’t think he’s representative of the community I want to be a part of,” and, “I don’t need to see a prima ballerina on the ice,” before praising Lysacek’s masculinity.

Weir, 23, declined to end the speculation in an interview at the facility where he trains in Wayne, N.J. As far as he is concerned, masculinity sometimes arrives in fur. “There are some things I keep sacred,” Weir said. “My middle name. Who I sleep with. And what kind of hand moisturizer I use.”

Getting more serious, Weir continued: “If I was out to please 10-year-old girls and their 45-year-old mothers in Boise, Idaho, I could play the game and be nice and make my voice deeper. But I don’t see the point. I’m not alive for 10-year-old girls and their 45-year-old mothers in Boise, Idaho — or Colorado Springs, Colo.” Weir was referring to the United States Figure Skating Association, which is based in Colorado Springs. He has claimed the federation has promoted Lysacek over him as a subtle form of punishment for his behavior.