Adam Rippon had a lot to celebrate this past week at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California. Not only did he qualify for his first Olympic Games on January 7, but he is also the first openly gay male to qualify for the Olympics, both winter and summer games. Watch the video above to get to know the figure skater.
“I am so excited to be going to my first Olympics in a few weeks,” the athlete, 28, tweeted on January 9. “Being the first out male selected to represent the [flag] at a Winter Olympic Games is awesome.”
“I was recently asked in an interview what it’s like to be a gay athlete in sports,” the Scranton, Pennsylvania, native proved to have a good sense of humor with his recent tweet from December 27. “I said that it’s exactly like being a straight athlete. Lots of hard work, but usually done with better eyebrows.”
The Olympic rookie will be headed to Pyeongchang soon, but Us Weekly was able to catch up him at the Park City, Utah, Olympics Media Summit to get to know him a little bit better.
Rippon revealed to Us his celebrity crush: “I didn’t realize that he was cute until One Direction broke up, but now that Harry Styles is living that solo, singing career, I’m into it.”
He also shared with us the quote that gets him motivated before a performance. “‘You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.’ And it’s so true. The ice can be slippery, you can make mistakes. But if you don’t give 100 percent, you’ll always regret that. If you give something 100 percent, you will always walk away and be proud of yourself for that.”
To learn more about Adam Rippon, visit teamusa.org. The Olympics begin February 8, live on NBC.
