How Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski Became the Most Iconic Duo in Figure Skating

Rarely do a sport's broadcasters outshine its stars. But Olympic figure skating's very sparkly Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski (quite literally) do.

Four years ago, NBC paired the two former Olympic skaters with Terry Gannon to be Sochi's second team of figure skating commentators. Through some cocktail of flash, chemistry, and pure energy, Weir and Lipinski became the Internet's darlings, the main draw of a sport that lacks the crown-jewel-of-the-Winter-Olympics luster it once had, and, most importantly, each others' best friend. "It's so rare in this life to find a friend that you could actually call a true friend, someone you could put down as your In Case of Emergency, or somebody that would be the Godmother or Godfather of your first-born," says Weir. "Especially coming from this very cutthroat and backstabbing sort of world that Tara and I come from."

So effective were the emergency contacts/soulmates that, for this Pyeongchang go round, NBC has moved them into the Primetime slot. There, they've maintained their signature commentating style: a Gladwell-ian ability to demystify figure skating for the uninitiated, and an extreme candor for which they've caught some heat. The outfits and social media game remain strong as well.

When we spoke with them last week (mostly about getting dressed), they were coping with not being in adjoining hotel rooms—"There's this very long mirror where the adjoining door should be," says Lipinski, "and I think about it all day long. Why didn't they just make the mirror a door?!"—relived their one disagreement, and explained what it's like to roll up to the airport with enough luggage to dress an entire Olympic village.

GQ: I believe congratulations and condolences are in order, Johnny. You’re both an Eagles and a Patriots fan?
Johnny Weir: It was a great honor to be a part of the winning and losing team.

How does that happen?
JW: We worked the Super Bowl a few years ago for NBC and the best thing that came out of it was getting a hug from Gronk. His arms wrapped around me twice. And from then on, I kind of became a football fan—and because of Gronk's hug, I am a big fan of the Patriots. But I'm from and I live in the greater Philadelphia area, and the Eagles have always been a part of my upbringing and my life.

Do you have a condolences message you'd like to pass on to Gronk?
JW: Gronkie, no matter what, I'll always love you.

You guys brought more than a few suitcases to Pyeonchang. What was the reaction of the airport crew when you rolled up?
JW: The night before I left for the Olympics, I had a performance in New York at Bryant Park, and then I had sort of a little going away party at The Polo Bar. And I tie one on pretty good, just to get myself good and ready for the Olympics. I somehow dragged myself to the airport and was walking up to Korean Air, and I had somebody with a cart helping me, because I can't move with 13 giant suitcases the size of Ford Focuses. You could just see the look on the check-in guy's face. It was pure terror and, "Oh shit."

Tara Lipinski: I did it kind of sneakily. I wanted to say goodbye to my husband one last time so I left him by the car. So I would just roll up one or two at a time so the people at the counter didn't really know what was coming until the end. And then they're just staring at me.

JW: Hating you. The funny thing, though, is that when we left Seoul—because we were in Seoul filming a piece about K-pop—it was Tara and I in a town car, and a Pony-sized moving van behind us, with all of the luggage.

When was the first time you guys met?
JW: Tara loves this story.

TL: [laughs] Skating is a small world but we never had a chance to ever really talk or hang out. We worked together in 2010 for Universal Sports and we did this show during the World Championships, and it was a week long. And I think at the end, you were giving me a foot rub on camera or something creepy like that. [laughs] That was one week. And then we didn't see each other for another three years. And then going into Sochi, Johnny was doing the Men's with Terry [Gannon] solo, and I was working on Ladies' with Terry solo. So we show up in Stamford, where we broadcast from, and we hung out while we were waiting one day. We were just sitting there with our bags that happened to be the same.

JW: They were Celine. It's GQ. You have to mention the fashion.

TL: It was just one of those instant connections. And we said: why aren't we doing this together? So we asked if we could. I'm sure at first people were like, “Oh boy.” So they gave us a trial run. And within that next year, we went to Sochi and on ai and off air we just started to bond. It's like a long lost soul mate that I met late in life. I can't imagine my life without him.

JW: This is why she tells that story. It's kind of like The Notebook.

It's a great story!
JW: You're welcome.

What’s the funniest or strangest speculation you’ve heard about your relationship?
JW: I think Tara and I try to be the zeitgeist when it comes to humor about us. Because it's really hard for journalists to get it right sometimes when it's a gay dude-girl partnership. It has a very easy way of becoming very Liza and David, or Will and Grace, or Sonny and Cher. And Tara and I stand alone. We do our own thing. I think the funniest thing that people have ever asked me was: are you guys actually friends? And I said yeah, why in the era of Kardashian bikini waxes on our TV screens every other day, why would we have to lie about being friends? [laughs]

TL: When we got back from the Sochi that was the first thing—people would be like, "Well, is this a real friendship? We'd be like: of course!"

What’s the last disagreement you had?
JW: I think we've had one.

TL: Yeah, we've had one. [Johnny] knows me so well. I think that's what comes through on camera a lot of times. We have that bond where we just know each other's lives in a deep way. Even though I wasn't there with him for his career, he wasn't there with me for mine, or we didn't know each other until we were a little older in life. We should write a marriage book, Johnny.

JW: Marriage etiquette.

TL: The very first disagreement we had, it was in Sochi and we were at a practice. We walk as a unit. We do everything together. And we were watching this practice, and all of a sudden he left me and he said, "I'll be back in one minute." And 25 minutes later, I'm still sitting there. The practice is almost over. And I realize he saw another one of his skater friends, and he left me!

JW: She was a pure nut. I was going to see somebody I used to tour with, she was my choreographer. And I walked over to introduce her to Tara, but then this ex-Olympic champion skater [comes up]—she speaks Russian, and I speak Russian, and Tara doesn't speak Russian, so it was really hard for me to be the dude in the situation and navigate these icy waters.

TL: You just left me for 25 minutes!!

JW: It was the first time and the last time I wasn't a good husband to her.

TL: You were so great about it because we got into our booth in the arena right after and I was like, "I'm fine, Johnny. I'm fine." And you were like, "Okay. Let's talk this out."

JW: Sochi was hard for lots of reasons. I was going through a really nasty divorce and the only person I had to go through it with me was Tara. And for a new friendship, that's a lot to expect somebody to put on her shoulders. But Tara was up with me as long as I needed her to be up with me, she helped push me through work. Somehow, at the same time my life was falling apart, we were crushing it at work, and we were winning hearts across America. That bonded us so quickly.

Who takes longer to get ready?
JW: Oh dear.

TL: Johnny?

JW: My hair takes longer than Tara's hair. But Tara's makeup takes longer than my makeup. So we kind of even out.

But I mean when it comes to oufits.
JW: Tara has one napkin-sized dress to pull on and a pair of shoes. I've got all the pieces to put together. So I'd say I definitely take longer just because if you're having a fat day, the one shirt isn't going to fit, so there's a whole outfit—you can't wear the blazer you wanted to wear because it only goes with that shirt. It's a complicated house of cards.

Those sounds like excuses.
JW: Oh fine. I'll just start dieting again.

What percentage of the clothes in your suitcase will you wear?
TL: We'll go through it. And that's why we brought 13 suitcases each. We like to do changes. If we are on-air, we're not going to wear the same thing for the Today Show or for the next photo shoot. And we do like to match up, so we have to bring all the options.

JW: In Sochi, we packed by events more so than just by sheer volume. Then after we'd sort of blown up a little bit, they asked us to cover the gala expedition on Primetime. And I remember trying to get ready and not having any clothes left. I had to wear some blazer that I'd had for two weeks in the bottom of my suitcase that just didn't fit. And I think we learned our lesson. Now we just bring essentially everything that we own. And we sort it out once we're here. And we wear almost everything.

Never wearing the same twice, I would imagine?
JW: Certainly not!

When was the last time you repeated an outfit?
JW: Yesterday we did head shots for NBC and then we did press, but I was wearing the same outfit for [both]. That's as hardcore as I get with repeating, even though it was one day and it was very separate things. Tara changed. Of course. I fucked up, honestly... Oh sorry! You're not our friend. [laughs]

Fuck. There, I said it, too. Can you ever get Terry Gannon to switch up his wardrobe?
TL: Oh, Terry has upped his game! Terry always looks dapper. In the beginning he would just do his own thing. And now he'll ask us like, “What color is today? What tie? What are we doing?”

JW: But he's like a little boy when he asks. He sort of doesn't want to be the dude that's asking what we're going to wear so he can match us and be a part of the group. He kind of does it in a little bit of a shy way. And he's very sweet about it. But you know, Terry rocks a lot of Varvatos.

TL: He's stylish.

JW: Tara and I love finding little accessories. He's got some Hermes pocket squares, via this guy over here.

TL: I bought him some cuff links for these games. But he was laughing with us because he's like, “In Sochi, I came with one suitcase. I always travel with one suitcase. I don't know what's happening to me. Now I have two. I brought two."

Do you have outfits that you look back on—maybe from broadcasting but also maybe from skating or prom or something—and been like, oh my goodness, what was I thinking?
JW: I'm sorry. Prom? What's that?

TL: We didn't have childhoods. We did not go to prom.

JW: I don't know what this prom is you're talking about.

TL: There are no prom pictures to be found. I look back, in an endearing way, on that time of my life when I was competing at the Olympics. And I'm very proud that I was always able to be myself and didn't really care what people thought, when I wanted bangs with my little Con-Air curling iron, and I wanted to wear glitter on my eyes and rings on every finger and charm necklaces that look like I was wearing baggage while I skated. But I do look back and man, those '90s bangs. I just wish maybe I didn't have those bangs that my mom would cut herself, unevenly. [laughs]

JW: We had to save money where we could. Figure skating is an expensive sport. I like to take big risks with my fashion and sometimes when you take big risks you can fail miserably. And I am completely fine with that. And I own that sometimes I look absolutely ridiculous. But there's one moment that sticks out and it's now famous among our whole production team. We can just call it the "cocoon."

TL: [laughs]

JW: About a year after Sochi, I went to Japan. When you're in Asia, [it’s] really easy to get taken in by harem pants and one-size fits all clothing, because it just looks so chic and eveyrone's so cool over here. It’s like when you're in Disneyand and it's cool to wear the ears, but then as soon as you leave you just look like an asshole that is still wearing his Disney ears on the flight home. So I brought this patent leather cocoon—that is cleanable by Windex—[and] took it to the broadcast. And there I sit next to Tara Lipinski, who's in one of her sexy little dresses, and the bright color, and I'm just in this thing. Honey, I looked like a butterfly that was coming out of a cocoon. It was off-putting. And garish.

TL: Right when we got off Johnny's like, “Why'd you let me wear this?” I remember saying that I'd gotten so used to Johnny at this point that some things are not shocking anymore. And even though I knew in the moment that this was a real odd one, I was gonna say something but just then was like, no.

I need to find a picture of this.
JW: I don't have one. [laughs]

TL: He's burned them all.