“Nobody should be made to feel like a freak or a weirdo,” Weir said, “of course unless you want that.”
During the telecast of Weir’s long program from Pacific Coliseum last week, commentator Alain Goldberg from the French-language RDS network suggested Weir sets a “bad example” for other male skaters because “they’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him.” Goldberg and fellow commentator Claude Mailhot also said “we should make him pass a gender test.”
Australia’s Channel Nine received complaints from viewers about similar comments.
Both stations have issued apologies. The Quebec council of gays and lesbians has said they aren’t sufficient and plans to file a formal grievance with Canadian broadcast authorities.
Weir said he is not interested in apologies or mea culpas.
“I’m totally for freedom on speech and voicing your opinion, so I can’t, like, have them fired,” said Weir, 25, who finished fifth at the 2006 Olympics and sixth here. “I’ve heard worse in bathrooms about me. It’s not a big issue for me that they said it. I just didn’t want other kids to have that same issue.
“I want them to think before they speak. I want them to think about not only the person they’re talking about but also the other people like that person. I want them to think about the other generations of people that they’re affecting by talking like that. … These two men were not criticizing my skating. It was them criticizing me as a person.”
Wow…
I guess it makes sense, though. Canada is still bitter that their “own the podium” initiative is falling flat on its face faster than Sidney Crosby fell into the net in Sunday’s game, and Australia hasn’t had much to cheer about except for Torah Bright and Lassila winning the only two golds the country has brought home in the entire competition thus far (that’s 2 out of their big total of 3 medals).
Weir’s an easy target. He’s out there, flamboyant, and unapologetic, so I’m not at all impressed with anyone who can find things to insult about him. In the end, he lets his skating do the talking.
Speaking of skating, how many medals did Canada earn on the ice?
1.
In ice-dancing.
And Australia, for all their shit-talking?
0.
Yeah, exactly.
Say what you want about Weir, but he handled his critics with a lot more class than his critics exhibited.