Weir holds back the tears ... barely
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CLEVELAND -- Curran Oi, best known until now for having the shortest name among the competitors at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, beat three-time champion Johnny Weir in the short program Friday night and pushed Weir to seventh place.
That says all you need to know about the predicament that Weir finds himself in approaching Sunday’s men’s finale.
Weir (pictured during his short program at right) promised not to cry Friday and he kept his word -- but it took some intense effort.
His chances of finishing in the top three at this year’s competition and qualifying for the world championships in March at Staples Center all but vanished when he popped his triple axel in the short program. For those who don’t speak figure skating, that means he did only 1 1/2 revolutions instead of 3 1/2, and he was penalized heavily for it: he was 15.64 points behind leader Jeremy Abbott.
Abbott, who skated a clean and evocative program, had 86.40 points. Defending champion Evan Lysacek, who trains in El Segundo, was second at 83.59. Hometown favorite Parker Pennington was third at 76.17, followed by Brandon Mroz of St. Louis (74.88), Ryan Bradley of Colorado Springs (74.05), Oi, an 18-year-old Boston native competing in his first senior level national championships (72.76), and Weir (70.76).
‘Right now I’m very upset with myself and very disappointed. I can’t wait to go back to the locker room or to my hotel room and go in the shower and just cry for an hour because I’m so disappointed with myself and what I allowed myself to do,’ Weir said.
‘My performance was obviously a huge disappointment to me. The mistake on the triple axel is a mistake I haven’t made in quite some time. It’s the first time I haven’t skated a clean short program at nationals since 2001.’
He attributed some of the problem to a stomach illness he suffered while competing in the Grand Prix final in Korea in December. He said he lost eight pounds and -- maybe worst of all -- had to take his costume in.
‘When you aren’t feeling strong as a person it’s hard to feel strong on the ice in front of all these people and TV cameras,’ he said.
‘I made a big mistake and that’s the bottom line for the day.’
Weir said he anticipated being able to come back strong in the long program -- presumably after he cried his eyes out.
‘I am down far enough now that I’ve got nothing to lose,’ he said. ‘I’ve got no pressure in the free program and I feel like I can [rebound]. I’m very well trained, as well trained as I can be at this point.’
-- Helene Elliott