{"id":3705,"date":"2010-03-09T18:42:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T22:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=3705"},"modified":"2010-05-18T16:41:50","modified_gmt":"2010-05-18T20:41:50","slug":"weir-withdraws-from-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2010\/03\/09\/weir-withdraws-from-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Weir withdraws from World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Release courtesy of U.S. Figure Skating<\/em><\/p>\n

Three-time U.S. champion and 2008 World bronze medalist Johnny Weir has announced he will not participate in the upcoming 2010 World Figure Skating Championships, which will take place March 22-28 in Torino, Italy.<\/p>\n

“I have decided that it is not advantageous for me to partake in the World Championships in Torino, Italy,” Weir said. “While I understand the importance of competition, I feel that a short break at this time would be personally beneficial to me.”<\/p>\n

Weir will be replaced by two-time (2008-09) World Junior champion Adam Rippon. Rippon won bronze at the 2009 Trophee Eric Bompard and finished sixth at the 2009 NHK Trophy. Following his fifth-place finish at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships, he took home gold from the 2010 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Jeonju City, Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n

“I’m very excited and grateful for this opportunity,” Rippon said. “Since competing at Four Continents, I have been training well, and I will be ready to do my best in Torino.”<\/p>\n

Weir, who most recently finished sixth at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, plans to spend the next few months training.<\/p>\n

“After my sixth-place finish in Vancouver, I believe I must take time to reassess my strategies and goals,” Weir said. “I can assure everyone that I will be re-energized after I’ve had time to rework my technique.”<\/p>\n

Weir’s 2009-10 season included a fourth-place finish at the 2009 Rostelecom Cup, a silver medal at the 2009 NHK Trophy and bronze medals at the 2009 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and 2010 U.S. Championships.<\/p>\n

“I want to be a better competitor and win medals for my country, and I hope everyone can respect my decision to take the time to improve,” Weir said. “I want my fans to know that I love them, and I work every day to make them proud. I will continue to work hard, and I hope my work for next season will be the most exciting of my career.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three-time U.S. champion and 2008 World bronze medalist Johnny Weir has announced he will not participate in the upcoming 2010 World Figure Skating Championships, which will take place March 22-28. “I have decided that it is not advantageous for me to partake in the World Championships in Torino, Italy,” Weir said. “While I understand the importance of competition, I feel that a short break at this time would be personally beneficial to me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-3705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worlds","tag-johnny-weir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3705"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3707,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705\/revisions\/3707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}