Men’s figure skater Johnny Weir is fired up about the comments made by a couple of Canadian broadcasters who joked that Weir should take a gender test and suggested his “body language'” and outfits set a bad example for other male skaters.
Weir, 25, responded to the criticism at a press conference Wednesday in Vancouver, “I felt very defiant when I saw these comments.”
Last week while on air, broadcasters Alain Goldberg and Claude Mailhot of RDS, a French sports channel in Quebec questioned whether Weir was unfavorably judged for wearing a semi-see-through pink and black outfit during one of his flamboyant routines.
“This may not be politically correct, but do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?” Mailhot said.
Goldberg responded that Weir’s mannerisms could be detrimental to the sport. “They’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him,” he said. “It sets a bad example.”
The broadcasters also joked that Weir should take a gender test like South African runner Caster Semenya. Mailhot suggested Weir should compete against women.
“It wasn’t these two men criticizing my skating, it was them criticizing me as a person, and that was something that really, frankly, pissed me off,” Weir told reporters. “Nobody knows me. … I think masculinity is what you believe it to be.”
Leave a comment and let us know if you think the broadcasters’ comments were uncalled-for.
We’ve included more photos and a video of Weir performing to Lady GaGa’s ‘Poker Face’ below: