What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Figure skater Adam Rippon will be the first openly gay man to compete for the United States in the Winter Olympics.
The 28-year-old celebrated qualifying for the Games, which take place in February in South Korea, in a tweet on Tuesday evening.
I am so excited to be going to my first Olympics in a few weeks. Being the first out????️???? male selected to represent the ???????? at a Winter Olympic Games is awesome. https://t.co/HpSHUr4uvP
— Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) January 10, 2018
He'll join twice national champion Nathan Chen and 2017 world junior champion Vincent Zhou to represent the U.S in figure skating.
“I’m really grateful that the selection committee looked at my body of work over the last two seasons,” Rippon, who qualified over the weekend, told reporters.
Rippon will be the first openly gay male athlete to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics. As LGBTQ sports site Outsports points out, U.S. figure skating Olympian Johnny Weir never publicly declared his orientation until after retirement. Rippon will be joined at the Olympics by openly gay Canadian skater Eric Radford, and U.S. freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy is also hopeful to join the team.
Read the full article about the first openly gay U.S. athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics by Shannon Connellan at Mashable