NBC made the major announcement on Sunday morning that popular male figure skater Adam Rippon would be joining the network’s broadcast as correspondent for the remaining week of the 2018 Olympic Games. But by Sunday night Rippon had changed his mind.
According to USA Today, Rippon decided overnight that he would rather stay as an Olympian for the remainder of the event. Had he become a correspondent, Rippon would have to relinquish his Olympian standing, move out of the Olympic Village, give up his credentials and not walk with Team USA during the event’s closing ceremony. The 28-year-old decided he didn’t want to lose out on all of those things.
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“I am so flattered that NBC wanted me to work as a correspondent, but if I took this opportunity, I would have to leave the Olympic team and I would have to leave the (Olympic) Village,” Rippon said in an interview on NBC Sports. “It’s so important to me, you know, I worked so hard to be on this Olympic team, and my teammates and my friends were there for me during my events, and that meant so much to me, that I really feel like I need to be there for them during their events.”
Rippon came away with a bronze medal in the team male figure skating competition, adding to the United States’ current medal count of 10 medals (putting them in fifth place overall behind Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada).
As one of the few openly homosexual athletes to qualify for Team USA, Rippon earned national attention prior to the Olympics when he expressed his anger over Vice President Mike Pence traveling with the team to South Korea for the Opening Ceremony.
“I personally don’t have anything to say to Mike Pence,” Rippon said in an interview with ABC News. “I’m very lucky because legislation that he’s pushed hasn’t affected my life at all.”
Rippon was mentioning Pence’s support of “gay conversion therapy” earlier in his political career.
“I spoke out because there are people out there whose lives have been affected by change that he’s tried to make,” Rippon said. “I spoke out for them because right now I have a voice, and I think it’s really important for me to use it. That’s a conversation for them.”
Since then Rippon has received waves of support from famous celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Britney Spears and Sally Field, the last of whom tried to set him up with her youngest son.
