Johnny Weir in His Own Words

Chester County’s own Johnny Weir is never one to hold back about his thoughts on skating, life or style.

Before leaving Vancouver, where he finished sixth in men’s figure skating, the controversially outspoken Weir took a few minutes to talk about his Olympic experience, his fans, where he should have landed in the standings, his love for fashion and his somewhat surprising plans for the future.

“Vancouver was a really amazing host city… it was a great Olympics and the experience has been amazing.”

“I came here not really as a medal threat or considered a medal contender… I did the best I could and people responded to that and that makes me so proud.”

“Tanith (Belbin) is a very dear old friend of mine… she was totally the best roommate that I could have asked for in the village because I don’t really know the other figure skaters that well or I had issues with them… She gave me my space and I gave her hers -- everything smelled nice, everything was organized -- it was excellent.”

“I Pledged the entire apartment before the short program because I was so nervous. I cleaned everything.”

“I did the best job that I could on the ice and I was very proud of that…I did amazing. And, that is the thing that I’ll always remember. I definitely felt like I’d done enough to win a medal. It’s figure skating it’s a political sport… It’s hard to have two people from the same country on the podium.”

“People around the world are standing up for me and protecting me against people that want to say nasty things… That kind of love from my fans and my friends and family, of course, it means so much to me.”

“If I have to go through some hard times, I’m completely fine with that as long as it’s beneficial to the next crop of skaters, the next generation of young people who are individual people.”

“I think that the only thing that people take away from me is to be unique and to be yourself and to feel powerful enough as a human being to be yourself no matter who is trying to knock you down or push you down or keep you down. You always have the power within yourself to stand up and fight and be yourself.”

“That’s something that I hope all my fans and all the young people who watch the Olympic Games can learn from me.”

“I think one iconic moment from this Olympics that sticks out to me was that of Canadian skater Joannie Rochette. Not because she was technically the best… but the fact that her mother passed just days before her competition -- she came out and was strong enough to compete and to do well and to ultimately win a medal.

“I think that is something that I will always remember.”

Johnny also took some time to talk about the future.

“I think the next step for me after skating is going to be a fashion school in New York called Fashion Institute of Technology… it’s a really big dream of mine. And then maybe after that I’ll get into linguistics -- before my mind goes to mush.”

“It’s my goal to live all around the world and Russia is probably the first place I would go outside the U.S. To live in Moscow would be a huge dream of mine.”

“If I still have the fire and I still feel that I can push myself to do well I don’t see why it’s not a possibility that I’ll keep competing. Right now I have the World Championships next month in Torino, Italy and I’m looking forward to that. I’m going to take a vacation after that and reassess what my goals are -- and hopefully keep skating.”

“I think that ultimate happiness in my life would be to be great, really, at everything that I do. To be somebody that can’t be compared to anyone else. That’s something that I’ll strive for in any realm of my life whether it’s a love life, a fashion line or raising kids. Whatever it has to be it has to be great.”

“Right now with my Olympic performances I fell like I achieved my own personal greatness and I’m happy about that.”