skate, he "started off strong" with a triple flip jump and a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination, but lost stamina. His planned triple toe loop became a double jump, and he left off a double toe loop on his next two combination jumps. He earned 217.70 points overall; the gold medalist, Brian Joubert from France, earned 15 points more than Weir. At the Grand Prix final, all six qualifiers, including Weir, had skated in at least one previous final; Golden Skate called it "one of the most equally matched fields in several years". Weir came in third place, with a total of 237.35 points. He was in fourth place in both his short program and free skate. In his free skate, he earned 152.75 points, a new personal best score. Weir placed third overall at the 2010 U.S. Nationals, with 232.09 points. 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". Longman also called Weir's free skate "oddly passive and stumbling". Weir accomplished three clean triple jumps, but he popped his planned second triple Axel and struggled completing the final jump of his triple-triple combination jump. He came in fifth place in the free skate, but his short program, which was the third-best with 83.51 points, kept him in medal position. Weir, along with first-place finisher Jeremy Abbott and Lysacek, who came in second place, were sent to the 2010 Winter Olympics; they were considered the strongest U.S. Olympic men's team since the 1980s. Weir came into the Olympics "a legitimate medal threat", although he did not anticipate winning a medal and suspected that it would mark the end of his competitive career. He stayed at the Olympic Village in Vancouver, despite wanting to stay at a hotel, for security reasons. He had received "very serious threats" from anti-fur activists for wearing fox fur trim on the left shoulder of his free skate costume during U.S. Nationals. He changed to faux fur for his costume at the Olympics, denying that it was in response to the threats, although he wore fur at a news conference for the U.S. men's team. His roommate was his "longtime friend", American ice dancer Tanith Belbin. He also held a press conference to respond to "offensive" remarks made by two Canadian sports commentators