Johnny Weir is the last hope.
Only Weir can prevent the United States from going without a medal at the World Figure Skating Championships for the first time since 1994.
“Don’t jinx me,” Weir said, with a wry laugh, via telephone from Sweden.
Ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto finished fourth Friday by .26 points. The point they lost for a fall in the compulsory dance cost them a fourth straight world medal.
Weir was absolutely brilliant in Friday’s short program. It was his best skating since 2006, when he made an Olympic bus molehill into a psychological mountain and had a poor free skate to place fifth.
“I’m not about to count my chickens,” Weir said of possibly winning his first world medal.
All his jumps were clean, flowing, effortless. His spins all were rated at the highest level of difficulty (level 4), his footwork sequences level 3. With that, you had a compelling 2 minutes 45 seconds.
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Edited by Mike Pankow from Tribune news services.
