Johnny Weir has announced his retirement from his skating competition in Today's show and also in his column on October 23' 2013.
http://fcnp.com/2013/10/23/johnnys-world-the-ice/
I'm not surprised to hear about his retirement of competition, but it's so nice to hear he is becoming a skating analyst of NBC !
Congratulations, Johnny !!!
I'm so glad I can see him or hear his commentating in all grand prix figure skating events this season and also Olympics in NBC !
I think Johnny, Tara Lipinski and Tanith Belbin are great combination as a commentator. I enjoyed his commentating in worlds 2011.
He is a great public speaker, with witty, outspoken talk. and last Sunday, I watched his commentating for Skate Canada for men's skating with Terry Gannon.
I thought he did great !
I have my own view of each skater, so it's not always the same way as he is commentating about skaters, but it's good he was commentating fairly each skater .
I wonder did he have time to do some commentator training for it ?
Usually people do some training about one month or at least one week until they do the live show.
That work looks difficult to me until getting used to.
But after I heard the information about his retirement and also his work for NBC, soon he was already starting his first work for NBC last Sunday.
I always thought Johnny is good at public speaking , so he may good at doing commentating as well. He was commentating nice things to all the skaters fairly.
I'm very looking forward to hearing his commentating every grand prix event this season ! Thank you to NBC for hiring him as a commentator !
As for his retirement of skating competition,
Thank you so much for the memories , Johnny !
Even though he retired from competitive skating, he is not retired from his skating life. We still can watch his beautiful skating on ice.
As I might already wrote about it in my past post, but I will write it again, he is already my legendary skater forever, whether he retired or not, since several years ago.
Personally I do not need scores to watch his skating.
From Johnny's message to Japan ,
" When I had the pleasure of speaking with Itoi-san in July 2013, I was still unclear as to what my future would hold as far as the Olympics and my future as a sportsman.
At that time my obvious goal was to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and I was training for that end.
In the months after our interview in Fukuoka, I struggled a lot on a physical and personal level and decided that as much as I would want to compete in Sochi, it was not a realistic dream.
Now I am excited about what life holds next for me. I believe that I will find my new direction after an adjustment period to no longer being a competitive athlete.
I will work as a figure skating analyst and expert for American television, and I still train on a nearly daily basis to stay in shape, take exercise, and so that I can perform all over the world as a professional skater in shows and tours, hopefully including Japan as long as my fans have an interest in seeing me!
Life does not always go as planned, that much I know, but I know that life has bestowed so many blessings on me and it will continue to as long as I believe in myself and as long as I have the will to entertain people, and make them smile, the world over.
I greatly look forward to my next trip to Japan and of course my next meeting with Itoi-san and his staff! Itoi-san has showed me so much respect and support over the past several years and I hope he has gained as much happiness and knowledge through our relationship as I have.
God bless you all, and God bless Japan.
October 11, 2013
Johnny Weir "
I think he is a super talented and very successful figure skater who was lucky to be able to survive in such a tough skating competition world.
He had a big dream to be a successful world figure skater in a small town when he was 12 years old, 17 years ago.
And when his talent, passion, action, motivation, effort, determination plus his parent's support, all got together, it made such a incredible power to succeed.
and he did it.
He became two time Olympian and three times US National Champion, World bronze medalist , Grand Prix Finale bronze medalist, world junior Champion , and many more gold medals from other skating competitions.
and during the break time from skating competition from 2010 to 2012, he did many other new things.
I still remember that fluff piece of Evgeny Plushenko in Torino Olympics 2006, Plushy said
" I want to be the best ! But to be the best, I need to give up everything else. "
This was spinning in my head for a while.
Johnny achieved not only to be two time Olympian, but already did many things in his life because he said he also has some other interests.
One focus at a time to achieve a goal. I sometimes wondered if he was focusing only one thing until now, what would it be ?
Then I realized who knows ?
Maybe he might have got Olympics gold medals ,or maybe not.
It's true he got blessings by also doing several other things , besides his successful skating career.
One of the greatest things about Johnny is no matter what - he loves himself, even though his confidence can be up and down depending on the result he got.
After being a fan of him, and getting used to watch many world top level skaters, my eyes are getting spoiled and sometimes I forgot about what they are doing is actually incredible and not normal.
But when I see many skaters who were unable to succeed for many reasons, I realized Olympians and world top 10 level skaters are all unbelievable to get to such high level positions.
There are/were no kids who dream to be Olympians around me.
My friends kids also because most people including me think it's not realistic.
I think Johnny and all the other Olympians are something different from normal kids. In such a young age, they already made their life stories, with details.
I've read about that the famous Japanese baseball player "Ichiro", was writing graduate report when he was 12 years old in elementary school, which stated he will be a successful professional baseball player who everyone admires, and will have a contract,1 million dollars annual income with ** baseball team. etc or something like that, with details in such a young age.
He already created his future story for his life.
Johnny was born to be a figure skater, I feel that before this life, his talent for it was already built up from past lives, and he may have already known about one of his life purposes before he was born.
I think that originally, most people probably know their life purpose, but they forget about it after they are born.
Many successful talented athletes or musicians are the same, this is why they can create such a future story in such a young age.
I've also read about that, 1972 Olympics gymnastic Gold medalist Olga Korbut 's quotes which said she has been running a Gymnastic school , and she enjoys teaching it, but she still hasn't met kids who have big dream, strong ambitious to go to Olympics yet.
It shows how unusual to have such kids who have a big dream and strong ambitious for their future and take actions to get to their goals.
Johnny was one of them.
I suppose his next life will be even stronger success as a figure skater, or whatever he chooses.
My top favorite Johnny's competitive performances are below,
1. Rondo Capriciosso ( TEB 2004 )
2. Valse Triste ( US Natioanls & Worlds 2004 )
3. Dr. Zhipago ( US Nationals 2004 )
4. The Swan ( US Nationals 2006 )
5. Maxim Marvica ( US Nationals 2006 )
6. Otonal ( NHK 2004 & Olympics 2006 )
7. Yunona I Avos ( Worlds 2008 )
8. Child of Nazare ( Skate Canada & US Nationals 2007 )
9. Fallen Angel ( Vancouver Olympics 2010 )
10. Love is war ( Cup of China 2008 )
We recorded all of his performances he did in the past and sometimes enjoy watching these performances.
His skating is special.
He is the most beautiful artistic skater I've ever seen.
I look forward to seeing his ice skating shows.