Probably, Johnny Weir is the most popular figure skater worldwide.
Besides his beautiful flawless clean performances at this Olympics, I’m so amazed by how many number of people are attracted by Johnny Weir’s skating every Olympics.
So many new fans are just coming, coming, coming.
Especially without having a big title such as Olympics gold medal, World title , Grand Prix title which many people seems to care about the most, who else is attracting so many people all over the world ?
I have noticed that he attracts new fans every time he performs.
Worldwide popularity
Mainly, people care only for their own country’s skaters more than other country’s skaters, especially in Olympics.
In the USA, Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen ( in majority of people ), In Korea, Yu na Kim, In Japan, Mao Asada ( and also Miki Ando, Daisuke Takahashi ), In France, Brian Joubert, In Russia, Alexey Yagudin , Evgeny Plushenko , Irina Slutsukaya, etc…
Stephane Lambiel is also very popular worldwide.
I have been a fan of Johnny Weir for about 4 years, since Torino Olympics 2006. One of the things that has impressed me with Johnny Weir is his respect for other countries and his open mindedness to other cultures. While most of athletes care and root for only their own country’s athletes. Which is also nothing wrong.
Next thing that impresses me about Johnny Weir is his heartfelt attitude to his fans. Each fan, he tries to remember each fan’s face and name. When I first saw him in person, I was just shocked for his sweetness.
Somehow, I’m sensitive for feelings and the mood in the air, and can catch superficial attitude, smile, business manner from my inspiration.
Johnny Weir was just different, he makes each fan feel special, and I’m not the only person who felt the same way, but so many.
That’s why he has so many loyal fans worldwide.
Especially, in Russia and Japan, he has large numbers of fans.
His fans held fan meetings at Korea, Japan, Russia, besides USA.
I also heard from one of my email Japanese friends, over 200 people were greeting for him at the Hotel lobby at GPF which was held in Japan and because there were too many people, there were many people in line outside of hotel as well.
Often hear that Johnny always remember each fan, and my email friend sounded delighted when Johnny remembered and asked her about her mother’s condition who was sick, which she had told him about it in last competition when she met him.
I'm always shocked his sweetness to his fans, every time I heard this kind of story about Johnny.
Interesting thing is seems like there is competition between his fans, who will get Johnny’s attention the most. I guess he is like a rock star skater in Japan.
It was great to see Johnny receiving beautiful red rose crown and red & while flowers and other gifts after he finished his FP.
I’m pretty sure it was from his long time Japanese fans who had given him similar flower crowns in the past.
Johnny always puts the flower crown on his head whenever he received it, and fans must be delighted to see it.
It’s unusual. The gifts were given by other country’s fans in Olympics.
Did you notice any other skaters were getting a gift, flowers from other countries fans ?
Of course he has many fans in the USA as well. Also, Korea, France, China,
Brazil, Mexico and other parts of Europe.
His unique character, being himself and charisma besides his skating talent and beautiful looks also ,many fans can not ignore.
Personally, I have never become such a huge fan of anyone in my life. Watching his skating is just treasure, and gives me joy and happiness.
Besides his skating, seeing his witty, lovely, charming personality every opportunity also became our habit.
Just like care for one of our family, I care about him.
Seeing his new fans action reminded me of myself when I discovered him at last Olympics, Torino 2006.
My husband and I just wanted to see more and more Johnny’s skating, and every thing he skated to in the past. And we purchased many DVD which have all the events Johnny attended.
There are many kind of Johnny Weir fans, and when we discovered him, most of his fans were from his “The Swan” performance at Torino Olympics in 2006, unlike us who were attracted to his skating by his unpopular, infamous Free Program “ Otonal “ performance at Torino Olympics.
Still love the performance because his artistry was so graceful and emotional, sentimental which fit with the theme of the music, more than his clean NHK (2004) performance which he looked happy during the performance.
We missed his Short program “ The Swan “ at that time, because we had never watched men’s skating event at that time.
For his “The Swan “ I loved his Nationals 2006 performance the best. It was just perfect.
His “My way” at Torino Olympics Gala was just masterpiece, so breathtaking.
“Fallen Angels” where he skated with Melissa Gregory & Denis Petkov is also masterpiece. We were fortunate to see it live in San Jose. Unbelievably beautiful performance, so creative and there were drama, power, beauty.
Festa on Ice ’s Johnny’s Poker Face at Korea ( 2009) is definitely one of my top favorite performances.
Rondo Capriccios in TEB ( France ) at 2004, This is also our number one favorite of his performances. Just so cool, with full of fire and passion besides his beautiful poetry world. His hairstyle, the costume also really loved it.
“Ave Maria” at nationals Gala in 2008, this was also incredibly beautiful. His movements are just amazing. I also loved his Ave Maria at GPF 2008 in Korea.
“ Yunona I Avos “ at World championship 2008, this made me cry because of his beauty of skating.
"Valse Triste" (SP) at World championship 2004, was so cute and his balletic movements were fantastic. Perfect performance ! I feel I want to put this performance in my pocket all the time.
"Dr. Zhivago" (FP) at Nationals 2004, was also perfection. This is the performance he won his first Nationals title without having reputation. Very imaginaive.
"Amazonic", "Hana's Eyes", "Wonderland" by Maksim Mrvica,(FP) at Nationals 2006, seems like it was unpopular, but we both loved this performance.
People’s taste are so different.
My least favorite of his programs may be “ King of Chess” and also EX number “ Feeling good “. But many people also love those programs.
Last Olympics ( Torino, Italy) 2006, I remember Johnny was writing about that “ the day before short program ( the swan), he received 20 messages from his fans, and after the short program, he received about 1,000 messages, and after Free programs ( Otonal ) he received over 3,000 messages which were both love & hate messages.
In this Olympics, ( Vancouver ) , his documentary movie “ Pop star on ice “ which received big hit in Sundance channel, also influenced his popularity besides his brilliant performances at Olympics.
His documentary movie also received #1 ratings at Philadelphia, in July 2009.
It’s so fantastic, it’s my favorite skater’ s documentary but I guess even non skating fan can enjoy with it.
Other things is his braveness for being himself no matter what other says.
In North America, his character , skating style, looks are considered as
“ feminine “.
There are many cultures in the world which are not so closed in by this particular kind of stereotype, such as some countries in Europe and Asia.
Johnny Weir for us is a huge hit in our life. We probably have never seen this kind of person, he is too interesting and fun in may ways.
Even though he may or may not get the biggest medal success which will be in the skating records, he already became a legendary skater in our opinion, he also has many other talents from his witty character and creativity.
I’m pretty sure he will be successful later in life as well, by doing what he loves.
My hope is he will have his own ice show in the future. We will definitely buy the ticket !
Besides his beautiful flawless clean performances at this Olympics, I’m so amazed by how many number of people are attracted by Johnny Weir’s skating every Olympics.
So many new fans are just coming, coming, coming.
Especially without having a big title such as Olympics gold medal, World title , Grand Prix title which many people seems to care about the most, who else is attracting so many people all over the world ?
I have noticed that he attracts new fans every time he performs.
Worldwide popularity
Mainly, people care only for their own country’s skaters more than other country’s skaters, especially in Olympics.
In the USA, Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen ( in majority of people ), In Korea, Yu na Kim, In Japan, Mao Asada ( and also Miki Ando, Daisuke Takahashi ), In France, Brian Joubert, In Russia, Alexey Yagudin , Evgeny Plushenko , Irina Slutsukaya, etc…
Stephane Lambiel is also very popular worldwide.
I have been a fan of Johnny Weir for about 4 years, since Torino Olympics 2006. One of the things that has impressed me with Johnny Weir is his respect for other countries and his open mindedness to other cultures. While most of athletes care and root for only their own country’s athletes. Which is also nothing wrong.
Next thing that impresses me about Johnny Weir is his heartfelt attitude to his fans. Each fan, he tries to remember each fan’s face and name. When I first saw him in person, I was just shocked for his sweetness.
Somehow, I’m sensitive for feelings and the mood in the air, and can catch superficial attitude, smile, business manner from my inspiration.
Johnny Weir was just different, he makes each fan feel special, and I’m not the only person who felt the same way, but so many.
That’s why he has so many loyal fans worldwide.
Especially, in Russia and Japan, he has large numbers of fans.
His fans held fan meetings at Korea, Japan, Russia, besides USA.
I also heard from one of my email Japanese friends, over 200 people were greeting for him at the Hotel lobby at GPF which was held in Japan and because there were too many people, there were many people in line outside of hotel as well.
Often hear that Johnny always remember each fan, and my email friend sounded delighted when Johnny remembered and asked her about her mother’s condition who was sick, which she had told him about it in last competition when she met him.
I'm always shocked his sweetness to his fans, every time I heard this kind of story about Johnny.
Interesting thing is seems like there is competition between his fans, who will get Johnny’s attention the most. I guess he is like a rock star skater in Japan.
It was great to see Johnny receiving beautiful red rose crown and red & while flowers and other gifts after he finished his FP.
I’m pretty sure it was from his long time Japanese fans who had given him similar flower crowns in the past.
Johnny always puts the flower crown on his head whenever he received it, and fans must be delighted to see it.
It’s unusual. The gifts were given by other country’s fans in Olympics.
Did you notice any other skaters were getting a gift, flowers from other countries fans ?
Of course he has many fans in the USA as well. Also, Korea, France, China,
Brazil, Mexico and other parts of Europe.
His unique character, being himself and charisma besides his skating talent and beautiful looks also ,many fans can not ignore.
Personally, I have never become such a huge fan of anyone in my life. Watching his skating is just treasure, and gives me joy and happiness.
Besides his skating, seeing his witty, lovely, charming personality every opportunity also became our habit.
Just like care for one of our family, I care about him.
Seeing his new fans action reminded me of myself when I discovered him at last Olympics, Torino 2006.
My husband and I just wanted to see more and more Johnny’s skating, and every thing he skated to in the past. And we purchased many DVD which have all the events Johnny attended.
There are many kind of Johnny Weir fans, and when we discovered him, most of his fans were from his “The Swan” performance at Torino Olympics in 2006, unlike us who were attracted to his skating by his unpopular, infamous Free Program “ Otonal “ performance at Torino Olympics.
Still love the performance because his artistry was so graceful and emotional, sentimental which fit with the theme of the music, more than his clean NHK (2004) performance which he looked happy during the performance.
We missed his Short program “ The Swan “ at that time, because we had never watched men’s skating event at that time.
For his “The Swan “ I loved his Nationals 2006 performance the best. It was just perfect.
His “My way” at Torino Olympics Gala was just masterpiece, so breathtaking.
“Fallen Angels” where he skated with Melissa Gregory & Denis Petkov is also masterpiece. We were fortunate to see it live in San Jose. Unbelievably beautiful performance, so creative and there were drama, power, beauty.
Festa on Ice ’s Johnny’s Poker Face at Korea ( 2009) is definitely one of my top favorite performances.
Rondo Capriccios in TEB ( France ) at 2004, This is also our number one favorite of his performances. Just so cool, with full of fire and passion besides his beautiful poetry world. His hairstyle, the costume also really loved it.
“Ave Maria” at nationals Gala in 2008, this was also incredibly beautiful. His movements are just amazing. I also loved his Ave Maria at GPF 2008 in Korea.
“ Yunona I Avos “ at World championship 2008, this made me cry because of his beauty of skating.
"Valse Triste" (SP) at World championship 2004, was so cute and his balletic movements were fantastic. Perfect performance ! I feel I want to put this performance in my pocket all the time.
"Dr. Zhivago" (FP) at Nationals 2004, was also perfection. This is the performance he won his first Nationals title without having reputation. Very imaginaive.
"Amazonic", "Hana's Eyes", "Wonderland" by Maksim Mrvica,(FP) at Nationals 2006, seems like it was unpopular, but we both loved this performance.
People’s taste are so different.
My least favorite of his programs may be “ King of Chess” and also EX number “ Feeling good “. But many people also love those programs.
Last Olympics ( Torino, Italy) 2006, I remember Johnny was writing about that “ the day before short program ( the swan), he received 20 messages from his fans, and after the short program, he received about 1,000 messages, and after Free programs ( Otonal ) he received over 3,000 messages which were both love & hate messages.
In this Olympics, ( Vancouver ) , his documentary movie “ Pop star on ice “ which received big hit in Sundance channel, also influenced his popularity besides his brilliant performances at Olympics.
His documentary movie also received #1 ratings at Philadelphia, in July 2009.
It’s so fantastic, it’s my favorite skater’ s documentary but I guess even non skating fan can enjoy with it.
Other things is his braveness for being himself no matter what other says.
In North America, his character , skating style, looks are considered as
“ feminine “.
There are many cultures in the world which are not so closed in by this particular kind of stereotype, such as some countries in Europe and Asia.
Johnny Weir for us is a huge hit in our life. We probably have never seen this kind of person, he is too interesting and fun in may ways.
Even though he may or may not get the biggest medal success which will be in the skating records, he already became a legendary skater in our opinion, he also has many other talents from his witty character and creativity.
I’m pretty sure he will be successful later in life as well, by doing what he loves.
My hope is he will have his own ice show in the future. We will definitely buy the ticket !