I Need To Talk About Johnny Weir And His Olympic Figure Skating Commentary

I’ve watched approximately ten hours and a twizzle sequence or two of figure skating over the last several days, and I don’t regret a single second of it, even if I wasn’t always happy with the results. It’s been a blast. I’ve now got so much to say about judging, musical choices, outfits and why this great sport should be on mainstream television more. Mostly, however, I have a lot to say about Johnny Weir.

First, let me set the stage for a second. I watch a lot of sports… like an unhealthy amount of sports. Between the American Big 4, tennis, college football, soccer, professional wrestling and the occasional Sunday of a key golf tournament, I probably watch at least twenty hours during the average week. It’s a lot, and because I watch so much, I have this very specific idea of what a commentator says and sounds like. Johnny Weir is so far outside the composite norm in my mind that I cannot get enough.

During a performance earlier this week, he described one skater as looking like a dude he went to high school with that would slam beers on the bed of a pickup trick. During another, he said a team looked like they were by themselves on the dance floor in some small smokey bar in Buenos Aires. He said another team dancing to The Matrix soundtrack couldn’t get out of the way of their own creativity. I heard him describe multiple teams as probably happy to just skate on Olympic ice.

As the NFL and other sports have become bigger businesses with billions of dollars in revenue on the line, announcers have become a lot safer. Yeah, they have their own distinct personalities, but it’s all within a very small variance. Very rarely do you hear play-by-play guys or even color commentators go off on wild tangents or speak their mind completely unfiltered, and when they do, it often becomes some big story we’re all shocked about.

Johnny Weir is a throwback and not just because he sometimes dresses like he’s going to a ball in the late 1800s. He’s a throwback because he’s an announcer with a distinct personality and his own way of speaking and describing things. He’s got more in common with 80s wrestling announcer Jesse “The Body” Ventura than he does with Tom Brady, and I love that about him. He’s also really good too.

If Weir was just some blowhard, wearing artsy outfits from your cool aunt’s closet and spouting off nonsense, it wouldn’t work in 2026. There’s a certain level of sophistication and professionalism we expect nowadays, but he’s able to provide that and mix it with his eccentricity. He has a good sense of when to calmly explain the rules and point out what to look for. He knows when to shut his mouth and not speak over big moments. He has a good intuitive sense of how to be a quality broadcaster; so, when he mixes in his unique delivery and amusing comments, it’s good television.

Weir has been the centerpiece of NBC’s figure skating coverage for several Olympic cycles, and I really hope that continues for decades to come. He has a tremendous rapport with real life BFF and Traitors co-star Tara Lipinski, and the two of them bounce off Terry Gannon, who is a more traditional broadcaster, really well. He also has a really comfortable dynamic with Andrea Joyce, who fills in for Lipinski during the pairs events. The whole thing just works, even if the rights issue is still a major impediment to watching it.

So, here's to Johnny. He might not be calling the most popular mainstream sport, but it’s time we acknowledge how good he is.