I love the Olympics. More importantly, I love interviews with Olympic athletes like 21-year-old figure skater Johnny Weir, who came in fifth in the US men’s figure skating competition.

Via The Washington Post:

Johnny Weir says he is very spiritual. It is true that he adores the celebrity rag Us Weekly and that he’s currently reading a book by too-thin, too-blond starlet Nicole Richie. But he also has a deeper side. He says he’s been obsessed with the Holocaust since he was little and considers himself “a little bit” Jewish, although he isn’t, not technically. He says he’s had his past lives read and found out that most recently he was a Jewish girl from Poland during World War II.

He’s currently nurturing his inner Jewish girl by purchasing her 103 pairs of designer sunglasses and “… nearly 40 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage.”

Around his neck, Johnny wears three chains with a knotted mess of pendants, including two Stars of David, an Israeli army dog tag, an Italian horn to protect him from the mal occhio , or evil eye, a miraculous medal of Mary, and the letter D, which stands for the Christina Aguilera song “Dirrty,” because Christina Aguilera is his role model.

“I don’t take them off ever and I don’t untangle them because, like, their powers are all hidden in this knot,” he says.

Only a slice of the magic the Olympics illuminate in all of us.