Figure Skater Johnny Weir Won’t Compete In Sochi Olympic Games In Russia

Figure Skater Johnny Weir Won’t Compete In Sochi Olympic Games In Russia

Figure Skater Johnny Weir Won’t Compete In Sochi Olympic Games In Russia, Three-time U.S. champion figure skater and critic of Russia’s anti-gay law Johnny Weir missed the deadline to register for the qualifiers for the national championships and will be unable to compete in the 2014 Olympics.

Since he did not place in the top five at last year’s nationals or win medals at the most recent Olympics or world championships, he is not eligible for a bye, according to U.S. Figure Skating.

While Weir has called Russia’s anti-gay law “heartbreaking and a travesty of international proportions,” he has previously said that he is against boycotting the Olympic games and made it seem like he would seek to qualify for the games. He cited his personal story to explain his stance.

I watched my family struggle to make ends meet, endure personal struggles with raising an Olympian and often times forgo their own happiness so that I could have a chance at my dreams. When I qualified for my first Olympic Games, my family sold one of our cars to be sure that my mother, father and brother could attend the event and see me skate for the world. […]

To have a boycott would not only negate the career of some athletes who have only one chance at competing at the Games, but also the over-time shifts an exhausted father takes to make ends meet, or the social acclimatization of a brother who can’t go on spring break because his brother needed another costume, or the mother who works part-time at a job far beneath her, just so she can afford to watch her first born perform for the world.