SBNation: "The Johnny and Tara Show is the Main Event"

[Willin]

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/4/14/11379546/johnny-weir-tara-lipinski-profile

SBNation just posted an interesting article on the history of the Johnny and Tara broadcasting team along with their opinions on "saving the sport" popularity-wise.


As a side note to the article, it's great to see SBNation featuring figure skating in a prominent front-page spot. The site is very popular with younger sports fans, so it's good exposure.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/4/14/11379546/johnny-weir-tara-lipinski-profile

SBNation just posted an interesting article on the history of the Johnny and Tara broadcasting team along with their opinions on "saving the sport" popularity-wise.


As a side note to the article, it's great to see SBNation featuring figure skating in a prominent front-page spot. The site is very popular with younger sports fans, so it's good exposure.

Now, THAT was a well written and quite informative article.. Took me over 30 minutes to read!!!!

 

[Justathoughtabl]

Nicely done article, and I agree...the more figure skating articles, the better.

 

[antmanb]

There is no mention at all about Tara's injuries in that article which seems a little strange. It suggests that she took advantage of the golden age of skating and did ten years with SOI when the reality is very different. She claims she'd stay in for four olympic cycles if she was skating now and yet no mention of the hip injuries and surgeries?

 

[clairecloutier]

Great article! I think it captured a lot of the different sides of Johnny-Tara.

 

[skatesindreams]

Nicely done article, and I agree...the more figure skating articles, the better.

Agreed.
I wish that Tara had been more forthcoming about some of the "challenges" of her post-Olympic experience.

 

[Wyliefan]

Lipinski's parents weren't interested in her skating?? Er . . .

 

[Yazmeen]

Great article, and I have to admit I LOVED the photo of Tara and Michelle in it. Oh, to have been a fly on the ice then!

 

[snoopy]

Great article, and I have to admit I LOVED the photo of Tara and Michelle in it. Oh, to have been a fly on the ice then!

I think that is them getting on the podium in Nagano. There were probably no words flying, just politeness.

 

[StitchMonkey]

Lipinski's parents weren't interested in her skating?? Er . . .

Yeah I am going to politely assume that this is the author reporting on Tara's personal perceptions of her life as a skater... not the author's comment on what really happened.

Maybe they did do a good job of hiding it. In fact I remember seeing an interview with Tara's mom well before the Olympics that had me pissed at her. A couple of gems were that she found watching Tara practice boring... while i know this may be true for many moms... I think you should either learn to lie about it, or just get out of the bloody rink and do something else! This is like seconds after complaining about the cost and hardships of skating... go get a job if you find watching training so dull. She also said when asked that if she had it to do over again she would not have let Tara find out how good she was... ummm ok, that is not a very nice thing to say.

So maybe the dynamic in home was a bit different than what we saw outside.

 

[MacMadame]

Lipinski's parents weren't interested in her skating?? Er . . .

And apparently the only reason Johnny isn't an Olympic champion is because of "politics". Not because of his skating.

 

[genevieve]

Now, THAT was a well written and quite informative article.. Took me over 30 minutes to read!!!!

I thought it was so poorly written I couldn't finish it.

Hadn't Tara said prior to the '98 Olys that her goal was 4 Olympics? I don't doubt that the will was there, but I'm surprised that she wouldn't mention the injuries that got in her way. What's to lose by telling the truth?

 

[Aerobicidal]

As much as I love the name Leander Schaerlaeckens, this article was even worse than some of the "reporting" I see in my city's alternative weekly.

Some of the quotes that I imagine have Faulkner rolling in his grave, jealous that he didn't write them himself:

"They hug and hop and everything is glitter and sparkles."
I'm imagining a happier version of this.

"They quickly connected waiting outside a studio on their first day. 'We both had Céline bags,' Lipinski recalled."
We also both love soup. And talking . . . or not talking. We could talk or not talk about our designer bags forever.

"Figure skating is a hierarchical sport. You await your turn."
Personally, I'm awaiting for my man.

"Neither he nor Lipinski will utter Kwan’s name, which is so figure skating."
What does Raven-Symoné have to say about this???

"Since those Olympics, NBC has not only made them the top figure skating team but used them at the Oscars and the Super Bowl — when Weir wore a sequined, football-shaped yarmulke, sparkly eye black and sequined pad."
After the dash, everything goes to shit.

"'Skating is such a small world,' Weir said. 'It’s very dog eat dog, it’s very behind the back. Anything you tell somebody can come back and bite you.'"
Don't count your spring chickens until you know whether they came before or after the egg you need to break to make omelets.

"Below the sequins there is substance."
Wasn't that Pauline Kael's review of Showgirls, in its entirety?

"They’re polished, yet loose and chatty. Profound but fluffy."
Coming this summer to Broadway (or, more likely, Branson): Watership Down: The Musical!

 

[Justathoughtabl]

Compared to some of the "writing" I see in print and online media lately, this was pretty good.

 

[HeManSkaterDad]

"Figure skating is a hierarchical sport. You await your turn."

And that is the kind of politically incorrect thing that held Johnny back (I won't say from winning the Olympics, but at least better placement). It's the dirty little secret everyone knows, nobody will say and Weir makes them uncomfortable by calling them out on it.

 

[rhapsody]

And that is the kind of politically incorrect thing that held Johnny back (I won't say from winning the Olympics, but at least better placement). It's the dirty little secret everyone knows, nobody will say and Weir makes them uncomfortable by calling them out on it.

Except if you actually read that god awful article, you'd know that Johnny Weir didn't say that line, but the writer did. The only other person mentioned in that paragraph by name is Tara and then Terry who went into depth on the Lipinski vs. she-who-shall-not-be-named battle (WTF was that about?).

I personally loved how the writer made it seem that the golden era of US figure skating ended after Tara Lipinski retired. Michelle's multiple World titles and medals afterward along with her Olympic medal meant nothing because there wasn't a Tara & Michelle rivalry. Sasha Cohen didn't exist either. And apparently Sarah Hughes never won an Olympic title.

 

[Prancer]

And that is the kind of politically incorrect thing that held Johnny back (I won't say from winning the Olympics, but at least better placement). It's the dirty little secret everyone knows, nobody will say and Weir makes them uncomfortable by calling them out on it.

I heard people--commentators and skaters and reporters--say it for years before COP. I haven't heard it much since then, but then, the sports hasn't been nearly as hierarchical since then, either.

 

[misskarne]

And that is the kind of politically incorrect thing that held Johnny back (I won't say from winning the Olympics, but at least better placement). It's the dirty little secret everyone knows, nobody will say and Weir makes them uncomfortable by calling them out on it.

I would say that faking illness and injury, generally behaving like a drama queen, defying the USFS when they asked him not to do things, and a poor work ethic probably held Weir back a good deal more than anything else...

 

[skatesindreams]

misskarne, do you have facts to support your opinions?

 

[misskarne]

misskarne, do you have facts to support your opinions?

Yeah. His book.

 

[katmari]

Here's a review of his book (I haven't read it):

http://brainalchemist.com/2011/01/11/book-review-welcome-to-my-world-by-johnny-weir/

He is brutally honest in this “feel-free-to-hate-my-guts” kind of way when he talks about his own lapses of judgment, like faking injuries and withdrawing from competitions. But you can’t be mad at him for long because he doesn’t give himself a break and certainly doesn’t expect it from others: “My stupidity and hubris had landed me in skating purgatory, cast our from the mainstream and any kind of official track. I knew I earned my karma and deserved everything that was happening, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with.”

 

[Nomad]

Yeah. His book.

I'll second that. One thing I particularly remember was his contention that he was a star but USFS wouldn't treat him accordingly.

 

[BittyBug]

Johnny tends to make flowery and dramatic statements, but the article quotes David Raith, the Executive Director of U.S. Figure Skating, as admitting that, “In the years he was competing, some people — including some inside the organization — may have felt uncomfortable with his flamboyance.” The comments by Weir further explaining the ways in which U.S. Figure Skating tried to mold him into a blander, straighter package are not imagined. So who do you think U.S. Figure Skating pushed as their leading man? Hint: it wasn't Weir.

And while events are mostly settled on the ice, the influence of federation backing is a consistent theme on this board, with particular emphasis on who a federation is pushing as their #1 top athletes. Of course nothing the USFSA said or did was responsible for Johnny frequently not maxing out his combinations or freaking out in Torino and leaving out an entire jumping pass, but who knows whether he might have skated differently if he felt that he had more support from his own federation. And who knows what boost his GOEs and PCS might have received if he had been U.S. Figure Skating's favorite.

It's in the past and Weir needs to own his screw ups and their consequences, but I don't think it's inaccurate for him to say that he was subject to political shenanigans and skeptical judging during his career, just as many other skaters have been (and likely will continue to be - how else do you explain some of the PCS scores we see?).

 

[skatesindreams]

BittyBug:
Entire post

 

[MK's Winter]

Ugh. This article. The savoiors of Figure Skating. My ass. While Johnny can be informative, he and Tara immediately began to brand themselves. All of their busy body happenings in Sochi and matching outfits. This isn't about saving figure skating in the U.S but making sure they both have a career path post skating. Johnny definitely is his own star and managed to stay relevant after his retirement. Tara on the other hand dropped off when she quit/was fired from SOI. She had nothing to do with skating for some time, while no one owes skating anything. She is cashing in for the sake of herself.

The ridiculousness of not mentioning Kwan's name "because that's skating", I find immature and childish. That's not skating, that's not doing your job (informing your audience) I would get fired if I didn't do my job. Kwan was nothing but respectful to her and I find that line insulting.

 

[VGThuy]

I really don't like the sounds of their voices when they commentate. It just doesn't seem broadcast level.

Also, about not uttering Kwan's name, I thought the writer only meant she and Terry didn't say her name in the context of them talking about how Tara "crashed the party" and how it was supposed to be someone else's turn. If that's the case, then I think it's actually respectful they didn't mention Kwan's name since they were sort of painting her as some sort of preconceived anointed one.

 

[firstflight]

I've not been able to sit through one of their broadcasts this entire season. I wait for other broadcasts to be loaded on YouTube. I can't stand Johnny's habit of saying the same negative critique multiple times in the same program like we're all dumb and didn't hear him the first time (his commentary on Rippon's SC LP almost seemed personal). Tara also doesn't really stand up for herself when they disagree.

My friend was ok with them until worlds. She texted me: "After listening to Ben Agosto and even Ryan Bradley, Tara and Johnny are really annoying."

I then made a comment about how much more soothing Agosto's voice is and she replied: "Plus what he says is actually helpful, whereas Tara and Johnny are talking just to hear their voices and it disrupts the performance. I never noticed before cuz they were the only ones being televised!"

 

[HeManSkaterDad]

And that is the kind of politically incorrect thing that held Johnny back (I won't say from winning the Olympics, but at least better placement). It's the dirty little secret everyone knows, nobody will say and Weir makes them uncomfortable by calling them out on it.

Perhaps I should clarify my comments, as it was a rushed note. My impression was that the author was saying that during his competitive years, Weir was more outspoken and/or open about many things, e.g. politically incorrect, than USFSA would prefer, and he felt that he was disfavored for it. I am not saying others did not also complain, as my dirty little secret comment was meant to be a simile, and I should have said 'It's like a dirty little secret . . .' It would have been clearer if I had said we often look with disfavor a person who tells the the dirty little secret nobody wants to hear, especially if we are already looking for a reason to do so. So, while I don't dispute Prancer when she says many others were saying similar things, my impression is that there likely was a great deal of favoritism during the time Weir competed and if he was in disfavor due to his comments or actions, it is a reasonable conclusion that he was hurt in his overall placement.

 

[Nomad]

Perhaps I should clarify my comments, as it was a rushed note. My impression was that the author was saying that during his competitive years, Weir was more outspoken and/or open about many things, e.g. politically incorrect, than USFSA would prefer, and he felt that he was disfavored for it. I am not saying others did not also complain, as my dirty little secret comment was meant to be a simile, and I should have said 'It's like a dirty little secret . . .' It would have been clearer if I had said we often look with disfavor a person who tells the the dirty little secret nobody wants to hear, especially if we are already looking for a reason to do so. So, while I don't dispute Prancer when she says many others were saying similar things, my impression is that there likely was a great deal of favoritism during the time Weir competed and if he was in disfavor due to his comments or actions, it is a reasonable conclusion that he was hurt in his overall placement.

And then there's that little matter of all those tech points he left on the table in competition after competition.

 

[Justathoughtabl]

Considering that Johnny mentioned Michelle's name right in the article, I think the writer was either applying the statement to Tara and Terry only or exaggerating for effect, ie "he (she) who shall not be named [because they're formal rivals and I want to make a point about how deep rivalries in skating can be]."

As far as branding themselves, well sure. A lot of people on TV are trying to further their careers. Heck, I do my job well,but I also try to make a good impression to further my career. (I'm not on TV, but marketing yourself is certainly legit and acceptable in many fields.) They're TV personalities, and they were marketing themselves, and obviously they didn't invent the idea of public figures using social media. The other piece of it is that the social media stuff helped attract interest, got people to tune in. It gave BuzzFeed and the NY Times and the other media outlets a hook on which to write a story, ostensibly about J&T, but also about skating. As long as Johnny and Tara did their jobs--commentate--I don't see the problem with the social media stuff. Did they do their jobs well? Lots of people say yes, lots of people say no. You've got to have a backbone to come on this board and say you like them, particularly Johnny. It's not the way the sentiment generally goes around here, but the sentiment here on this board doesn't necessarily reflect that of the public.