VANCOUVER — Johnny Weir is staying at the Olympic village because he was concerned about his safety after receiving what he considers "very serious threats" from anti-fur activists.
The American talked about staying in a hotel because he didn't enjoy his experience in the Olympic village four years ago. But security has become his main concern.
"I felt very threatened," he said Saturday. "I'm not allowed to say how everything got through, but my agent got letters and faxes and e-mails. I got letters at the ice rink; somebody found my phone number.
"All these crazy fur people. Security-wise, to stay in a hotel would be very difficult. There have been threats against me. I didn't want to get hurt."
Weir is sharing a two-bedroom suite with ice dancer Tanith Belbin, which made for some humorous by-play earlier in the week. But the three-time national champion wasn't in a joking mood Saturday about accommodations — or about changing his costume for the free skate.
"I'm just an easy person to pick on because I like fur," he said. "It's easy to put your case against an athlete who is going to the Olympics. It's a very good, easy thing for these activists.
"It's a very scary thing. I'm a figure skater, I'm not some huge politician who gets these things all the time."
Weir drew the ire of animal-rights activists last month after he added white fox fur to the left shoulder of his costume for the free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After nationals, he said he would wear faux fur in Vancouver.
"It was not because I was pressured to change it but because I don't like faux fur," Weir said. "I didn't change the costume, I'm just switching back to another costume."
The men's short program is Tuesday and the free skate is Thursday.
Weir's career has stagnated since the 2006 Olympics, where he was second after the short program and then plummeted to fifth. He missed the bus to the rink for the free skate in Torino, which he admitted unnerved him.
So how might these threats affect Weir, who finished third at nationals to grab the final U.S. spot for the Olympics?
"I don't think anything overpowers my skating," Weir said. "This costume controversy was silly. It didn't change my opinion about anything; it didn't change my life."
In fact, Weir said he would wear fur again in a costume if he felt the outfit warranted it. The black jacket he sported at a news conference for the U.S. men's team had fur lining.
Weir certainly hasn't lost his ample sense of humor, though. He joked about realigning one reporter's wardrobe, raved about the cleaning products he brought to Vancouver and left the convention center with a smile and a wave.
World champion Evan Lysacek and U.S. champ Jeremy Abbott also are staying in the Olympic village.
"To stay in the village is great to meet new athletes from all over the world that work for the same goals as you are," said Abbott, who is in his first games. "It's amazing."
Lysacek finished fourth in Torino and, like Weir, carries some bad memories of those Olympics. A two-time U.S. champion, Lysacek had the flu during those games. He briefly considered staying in a hotel in Vancouver.
But he's in the village, too, sharing a suite with pairs skaters Jeremy Barrett and Mark Ladwig. And Lysacek is eager to get started.
"It's sort of the crowning moment of the last four years," he said. "The skating has been going really well, training is going well, I feel good. I think I have a good understanding of what worked well for me and what didn't work, and I think I come in as a much smarter athlete than I was four years ago."
MEN'S HOCKEY: Steve Yzerman is pushing the puck to Russia. Rather than saddling the Canada men's team — of which he's the executive director — with the hopes and sky-high expectations of their countrymen, Yzerman proclaimed the two-time defending world champions the team to beat.
"They've got some of the top forwards in the world right now," Yzerman said. "With a little bit of luck the other countries can dethrone them."
WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Canada opened its run at a third straight gold medal with a goal just 99 seconds in and went on to ring up the biggest blowout in Olympic history: 18-0 over Slovakia.
The reigning silver medalists from Sweden beat Switzerland 3-0 in the first match of the women's hockey tournament.
BIATHLON: Slovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina won the women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint. The top American, Sara Studebaker, finished 45th, more than two minutes behind.
OPENING CEREMONY RATINGS: The Nielsen Co. says an estimated 32.6 million people watched NBC's telecast Friday night, 48 percent more than the 2006 Torino Olympics and approaching the 34.2 million who watched the opening in Beijing.
The Canadian broadcast was easily the most-watched TV event ever in the country, topping the 2002 telecast of the men's hockey finals in Salt Lake City. Nearly half the country was watching when the opening ceremony began and two-thirds of the country saw at least some of it.
OLYMPIC notes