Johnny Weir: Gay Athletes Should 'Fight For A Chance' At 2014 Olympics

From The Huffington Post

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 12: Figure skater Johnny Weir attends the Asher Levine F/W 2013 runway show at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on February 12, 2013 in New York City. Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for Asher Levine

U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir sounded off on pleas for a 2014 Sochi Olympics boycott in the wake of controversial anti-gay legislation in Russia.

In an Op-Ed for the Falls Church News-Press, Weir warns that those hurt most by a potential Olympic boycott would be the athletes who have "dedicated their lives to possibly having their lone life-changing moment."

Citing his own family's personal and financial struggles ahead of his own Olympic glory, Weir adds:

To have a boycott would not only negate the career of some athletes who have only one chance at competing at the Games, but also the over-time shifts an exhausted father takes to make ends meet, or the social acclimatization of a brother who can’t go on spring break because his brother needed another costume, or the mother who works part-time at a job far beneath her, just so she can afford to watch her first born perform for the world. The Olympics are not a political statement, they are a place to let the world shine in peace and let them marvel at their youthful talents.

--more at The Huffington Post