He was ready to quit figure skating before the 2009–2010 season, but ended up qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympics by winning bronze at the 2010 U.S. Nationals.

Weir was also an accomplished rider;[13] by the age of nine, he had won several equestrian competitions and competed in the Devon Horse Show with his Shetland pony, Shadow.

[17] Weir was an honor roll student at Newark High School, where he graduated in 2002, and studied linguistics at the University of Delaware before dropping out.

[18][17][13] In 1994, he was inspired to further pursue figure skating after watching Oksana Baiul compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics, during the sport's rise in popularity caused by the Nancy Kerrigan attack at the 1994 U.S.

At the 2000 U.S. Nationals, he was the only competitor in the junior division who attempted a triple Axel in his short program, but despite his falling, the judges put him in first place.

Lysacek won the silver medal; it was the first time since Rudy Galindo and Todd Eldredge in 1987 American men came in first and second place.

[34] Philanthropist Helen McLoraine, who had helped support Weir and other skaters financially for many years, fell leaving the rink after a skating session in Dallas and died, something that added to his sense of "personal failure and...painful loss".

[42][46][48][49][50] Weir also stated, about his performance: "It was a cool feeling to be written off and then come back to show them what I am made of...I hope I shut up everyone who counted me out".

[54] He toured with Champions on Ice the summer of 2004, with Cohen, Irina Slutskaya, Elena Sokolova, and his "skating hero",[55] Evgeni Plushenko.

[75][76] Weir's short program this season was based upon an interpretation of Camille Saint-Saëns' The Swan, which was traditionally danced and skated to by women.

Tarasova had been pushing to create a short program for Weir with Saint-Saëns' music since the two began working together, believing that his "naturally quiet and delicate way on the ice mirrored the mellow cello piece".

[80] Weir was aware of the impact it would make on the public and in the figure skating world, and that it could harm his reputation with the judges;[81] he later stated, "Gender bending would take me into a whole new and very taboo area, where I would stand totally alone".

Weir arrived late to the stadium for his free skate, blaming it on missing the bus from the athletes' village and not being told of a schedule change, which put him 90 minutes off his routine.

[104] Plushenko chose not to compete after the Olympics, so Worlds was open for Weir, Lysacek, Lambiel, and Buttle to win the gold medal.

[118] Weir competed at the Grand Prix Final, but had to withdraw after the short program due to an injury to his right hip from a fall.

[126] He was in fourth place after the short program; he admitted that he was hampered by his nerves, had trouble adjusting to competing in Tokyo, "forgot to breathe a little bit", and said, "My costume is even tired".

He told reporters that he felt homesick and nervous moving to a large city and living on his own for the first time in his life, resorting to sleeping with a kitchen knife next to his bed.

He worked with choreographers Faye Kitariev and Viktor Petukhov to compose a Russian rock opera based upon Svetlana Pikous' song, "Yunona I Avos.

Sundance also commissioned and aired, beginning in January 2010, an eight-episode documentary series, Be Good Johnny Weir, which depicted the "recent ups and downs of his career".

[172] Variety called Pop Star on Ice, which was directed by David Barba and James Pellerito and made over the course of two years on three continents, "a fascinating portrait"[174] of Weir.

[186] Sports reporter Jeré Longman of The New York Times, who said that Weir's costume overwhelmed his skating, thought that he "seemed cautious during his jumps before relaxing with a head-bopping playfulness".

He had received "very serious threats"[192] from anti-fur activists for wearing fox fur trim on the left shoulder of his free skate costume during U.S. Nationals.

[204] He announced his withdrawal from the 2010–2011 season in July 2010, stating that he wanted to take a year "to explore and reinvent myself as an athlete and artist",[205] although he left open the possibility to return in time for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

[209] Weir announced his withdrawal from the 2011–2012 season in June 2011, explaining that he was unable to adequately train for competition because of his "many obligations",[210] but expressed his intention to compete in Sochi.

He competed at the 2012 Finlandia Trophy, attempting a quadruple jump in both his short program and free skate for the first time, and coming in fourth place overall.

[222] He was teamed up with sports commentator Terry Gannon and fellow figure skater, Olympic gold medalist, and good friend Tara Lipinski; their instant comedic chemistry and harmony was a success and they have worked together ever since.

[232] Weir and Lipinski were fashion analysts and correspondents for the Oscars, dog shows, the Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl, and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

[240][241][242] In January 2012, Weir married his partner Victor Voronov, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and whose family was from Russia, in a civil ceremony in New York City, five months after the state legalized same-sex marriages.

[248][249] Prior to the purchase, he cited privacy, seclusion, and his need for rest from his busy life, as factors guiding his decision to settle in a more rural area.

He also announced that in September 2023, he would create a skating academy in Wilmington, Delaware, for the purpose of training skaters for national and world competitions.