Although Johnny had some jump problems , fell on 4T which was downgraded , two footed on triple axel, triple triple combination jumps became double double.
However, artistry always wins in my mind so this is my favorite men’s short program performance at Rostelecom Cup’ 2012.
Because I realized I’m watching art in figure skating, and his art skill is incomparable with all other men’s skaters in the event. (IMO)
His beautiful artistic movements blew away these jump errors from my mind and made me to watch over and over.
And his spins were really great as well. The rule of spins has changed again ? He used to often receive level 4 spins and level 3 step sequence.
But after the long blank from competitive skating, looks to me he is still rebuilding the technical skills based on the present rule.
And for transition , they are expecting to do difficult moves between element to element (? ), but choreography using mainly upper part movements are not considered as transition ?
I really loved watching how he moved using his arms, hands and fingers and his full body.
I found Johnny’s interview after SP below,
Sad to hear he had an injury with his hip and had to withdraw from it and also is not going to compete in Paris as well.
He sounded like he really wanted to finish to compete until Saturday morning practice he got hip injury by falling on a jump.
In the SP, he seems to have already same injury even though he didn’t talk about it . And I guess it got worse during the practice.
Returning to competition,
I actually didn’t realize just how hard it is to return to competition.
In the past, what I know is Sasha Cohen returned to competition but she was unable to attend Grand Prix events due to injury, and only attended US Nationals competition.
Evegeny Plushenko, he attended one of grand prix events Rostelecom Cup , in the Vancouver Olympics season, and European Championships, Russian Nationals and Olympics.
I didn’t see they compete all the Grand prix events.
Plushenko’s mental toughness is out of this world , I still think he is the king on ice, seeing all his career.
His wins were often with clean performances. but I felt his best time had already gone seeing his quad jumps and other jumps after seeing his performance in 2009 - 2010 season.
He had better quality of jumps in the past.
Coming back to training for competition to bring back competitive skating skill, skaters fall on jumps all the time , and it hurts the body.
Skaters are working hard to get competitive shape, I suppose it’s incredibly hard work and requires amazing mental strength.
The other day, I accidentally fell on the floor hardly at home because the floor was very slippery, and hit my face and right side of whole arms and my body on the floor.
It took about more than one week to get full recovery and it was really pain for a while.
But I realized that this is nothing compared with what figure skaters have been doing in their training and practice every day .
Johnny was away from competition 2 years and a half.
I suppose skaters who had more than 2 years away from competition need training time at least more than full one year training time to get back to competitive shape.
Depending on the age, it may need more time.
Johnny’s withdraw news was sad to hear, because I really wanted to see his beautiful performances more.
But on the other hand, it may be a sign of “he is not quite ready”.
He started training in the middle of February this year and I do not think it’s enough time to get back to his perfect competitive shape.
This is why he got fear to jump. (IMO )
Solution I think is well preparation. It can remove fear.
And train to imagine successful landing on all the jumps.
No fear.
Actually, I think he did amazing with such a short training time. Besides he was unable to train during the hurricane and after that until arrived at Russia. ( ? )
If my memory is correct, even Plushenko was training much more time to attend in Rostelecom Cup in 2009.
Evan Lysacek was planning to attend Skate America, but I’ve read about he got groin injury and withdrew from the competition.
And about two week ago, I saw photos of he was attending ice shows in twitter. Maybe he already recovered from the injury ?
Evan was announcing for his come back last season, but he and US federation had disagreement financially for his come back and he canceled to attend Skate America.
Maybe it means Evan has been training to get back to competitive shape since last year ?
Hopefully we will be able to see the competition between Johnny, Evan and Jeremy in US Nationals‘ 2013.
And in the worlds, USA men will get 3 spots for next season for Olympics.
I’m also glad Johnny competed in Finland and Russia attempting quad jumps.
This experience surely helped mentally for his next competition even though he was not ready yet.
Until US Nationals,still have time. But I suppose he will slowly to get back to competitive shape.
I really think what Johnny is doing is brave and amazing.
I’ve read that one of Plushenko’s interviews and he was saying,
“ I don’t talk about injury anymore, because people don’t want to hear such a thing. “
I know a lot of people don’t want to hear about injury or illness or withdraw news and they judge skater’s technical performance every competition, while disregarding whether the particular skater they are criticizing, has an injury or not.
Sometimes I feel like I’m talking with Robots who have no heart, just like the COP system.
When Miki Ando had injury and she was putting bandage on her back, some people were criticizing about why the bandage was showing on her back, as if it could be totally hidden.
According to them, they are thinking skaters do this to get sympathy . They don’t want to hear any excuse, and they completely disregard the reality of injuries.
I think in figure skating , it’s not easy to say this skater is better than that skater.
And it’s more of what one wants to see , based on each person’s limited perception.
I just love seeing Johnny Weir’s skating , even he is just crossing on ice , the way how he is skating, it’s beautiful to watch.
It doesn’t matter they made the skating rules , skating skills, levels, what kind of skaters are valued, in the present skating rules.
And we must remember, these rules were made by someone.
For me, the point is which performance and movements made me to watch them over and over and how much I enjoy it.
About Johnny’s jumps,
I suppose he is still working in process.
Johnny’s triple axel looked like a part of art until 2007-08 season.
Was often called as his signature jump because of the quality, smooth landing with artistic pose.
Looked effortless.
Something had changed since 2008 - 09 season’s after GPF. He had new shoes in the beginning of that season, so whole that season his triple axel jumps were not like 2007 -08 season’s quality of jumps.
His quad jumps looked full rotation while he was working with Priscilla Hill .
His quad definitely had changed since he started working with Galina. Hoping he will find someone who can fix downgraded under rotated quad jump. Downgraded quad’s is really worth to do it ?
Under rotated quad can get 7.20 points at least, but downgraded is only 4.1 points minus deduction of two footed, so he always gets around 2 points from the quad.
Hopefully he will get full rotation quad or at least , not downgraded quad jump. ( wonder can someone help him with full rotation quad ?
All the best to Johnny.
We are very looking forward to seeing his performances.
Johnny has his husband who supports him, plus his fans support getting even stronger.
We have seen much more difficult time for him in the past, and I had heartbroken in 2007 US Nationals, the most, then Vancouver Olympics and 2009 US Nationals.
I’m very glad Johnny has his beloved husband who is very supportive to him and makes him happy. And their lovely pet Tema.
Get well soon, Johnny !