Olympic ice skater and three-time national skating champion Johnny Weir returned to Quarryville Elementary School Friday to visit the students at his former school and donate $1,000 for library books.

Weir, 22, of Newark, Del., was characterized as having a diva moment for complaining to the media after finishing well behind gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February.

He appears to have matured immensely since then.

Weir, who attended Quarryville Elementary from kindergarten to fourth grade, spoke with honesty and sincerity to 20 students in Robyn Chegwidden’s second-grade class in the library and in two assemblies.

He told the children that he’s not rich yet and that his dreams are to win a gold medal, live in New York City, become a fashion designer and perhaps go to college.

As for returning to Quarryville, he said he returns often to visit his grandparents, Robert and Marcella Moore, of Willow Street, and aunt and uncle, Diane and Joel Neff, of Quarryville.

“And we love the food at Fergie’s,” he said, referring to the local supermarket, Ferguson-Hassel.

Dressed in blue jeans, a white Olympic jacket and red suede Louis Vuitton loafers with gold buckles, Weir returned to Lancaster County, known for its strong work ethic, with a message that hard work can make dreams come true.

Israeli National ice dancers Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky accompanied Weir, along with a crew from Retribution Media, which is making an independent film about him.

He said he credits his fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Balderston, who was at the first assembly, with teaching him the value of hard work.

“She was upset because I couldn’t memorize the multiplication tables,” he said. “I couldn’t play (at recess) until the last two minutes, when I finally got them right.”

He spoke about how hard his parents, John and Patti Weir, worked to keep his family, which includes a younger brother, Brian, together while allowing him to follow his dreams to become an Olympic champion, how hard he continues to work for his dream to come true in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and how hard it was to do less than his best with 22 million people watching him at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

“It was hard to know all these people saw me, and I didn’t do very well,” he said about his fall from second to fifth place at the Olympics.

“Anything that knocks you down can make you stronger,” he said. “There’s an upside with every downside.”

Weir said in an interview before the assembly that he donated the money for the books to the school because he wanted to give something back.

“Reading is obviously important,” he said. “It shapes your whole education.”

He brought along a list of book titles and topics, including history and languages — he has taught himself to speak a little Russian — that he would like the school to purchase with his gift.

Weir, who said he “fell in love” with Russia when he first went there to skate three years ago, is known as a “Russophile” (the love of all things Russian) and has miniature long-haired Chihuahuas named Bon-Bon and Vanya (the Russian word for “Johnny”).

He was still jet-lagged from a recent flight from Russia, where he placed second — after France’s Brian Joubert, “the best in the world” according to Weir — in men’s singles in the Cup of Russia.

He stopped in Quarryville on his way to skating performances in New York and Boston, before returning to Russia for the Grand Prix Final and two performances in Red Square.

But he took time out of his hectic schedule to deliver the check in person because he said he has fond memories of the school and Quarryville.

“I’ve been to Japan, Russia, China, almost around the world,” he said. “But I have never forgotten where I came from.

“You can do anything — even when you start out in a town that has horse and buggies — and go anywhere,” he said in the first assembly. “The school made me what I am today.”

He urged the children “to work very hard,” suggesting that reading well is just as important as skating well.

“If you read enough, then you can read an entire novel,” he said. “If I skate well, I can go to the Olympics.”

· CONTACT US: jkern@LNPnews.com or 481-6028.