No matter what kind of person you are, it takes
courage to really be yourself.
When I finally shed that doubt and
stopped worrying about what I feared
other people would think of me.
I was having, you know, the best experiences
of my life.
Hi, everyone, Meryl Davis here for the Olympic
Channel with Olympic medalist,
cultural icon and my friend
most importantly. Oh Thanks. Adam Rippon.
We're in your home.
So thank you for having me here.
I had to clean up a lot before you got here.
You know, you are an Olympic medalist.
So can you talk a little bit about what success
really meant to you both in PyeongChang and
beyond?
Wasn't like the best of the best and
not a world champion, but
I found myself being really proud of what
I had done and realized that success
is so personal.
When I was going to the Olympics, I told myself
that my number one goal was to
represent myself to the best of my ability.
And that meant skating the best
I absolutely could.
And it also meant being honest and
showing who I was.
And I thought that, you know, I would answer
any question that I got, honestly, whether it
was how are you feeling?
I would say, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to
have diarrhea.
And you tackled some pretty big issues throughout
the course of the games, which I think a lot of
athletes tend to shy away from.
I just felt like in this day and age that we live
in with social media, your voice is and
can be so powerful that what's
the point of having one if you don't use it?
Love that, amazing!
Well, your experience on top of the skating in
PyeongChang being the first out
athlete for Team USA.
What did that experience mean to you?
So I got to share this honor with
also like Gus Kenworthy, Gus and I did not
meet until the night
of the opening ceremonies in the holding tent for
all the athletes. It's somebody who I've never
met before, somebody who does not do the same
thing I do. But on some level,
I so understand things that he's
thought and things that he has gone through.
And when we met in that tent, it felt like we had
known each other for ever.
You know, we were getting to walk in and we kind
of looked at each other and he turned to me and
he said, do you want to walk in together?
And in that moment, it just felt so
much bigger than me.
I think the two of us walking in together was
almost a political act.
It felt like something that I would have
never thought was possible 10 or
15 years earlier.
And I remember thinking like if 10
year old Adam saw this, maybe he wouldn't have
felt so uncomfortable for 20 years.
I felt really grateful to be part of that.
I don't know how aware you were necessarily
going into PyeongChang.
What kind of icon you would be for the LGBT
community.
I was able to do what
a lot of people before me were not able to
do without repercussions.
What I felt like was something that I was
selfishly doing for myself was actually a result
of a lot of work other people have done it before
me so that somebody who's like me, who's
got a big mouth, can go to the Olympics
and be embraced by so many different
kinds of people.
I finished reading your book, which is insanely
inspiring and powerful and emotional.
People, as they read the book, will sort of
understand these really challenging moments.
But looking back on the moments where whether
money was tight or just balancing
all the difficulty of making your dreams a
reality. Do you have any piece of advice
you would give yourself that?
I think back to that time, a lot of when things
were really challenging.
When I really, you know, was living in my coach's
basement, I had to choose between paying for
ice time or like getting groceries.
The only thing I would say to myself then is
don't forget this feeling, because
in those moments are when I had my
biggest breakthroughs and if there was anything
I could say to that person, I'd be like, sorry.
You'll have more money later.
But just like focus.
Do you ever pinch yourself and just think like, I
can't believe this is my life now?
No. No. Because I can believe it.
I'm incredibly grateful to have met so
many people who are so influential,
and I think that it's helped me and inspired me
to kind of take the same path as
people like them.
I think that's why you've been so successful.
Is having that. Raving success.
Actually a raving success.
Yeah.
Who would play you in a movie about your life?
I haven't thought about this because it needs to
be the right person.
I think Margot Robbie would do a good job.
She would. So she can play anything
she can. Yeah. And you can play Tonya Harding.
You can play anything.
Here's my only qualification.
Somebody young and
hot. You can play yourself.
I was talking about myself.
Yeah, it's a vlog.
I like it. Margot Robbie,
maybe she's in it and
I haven't called her back. Well I can't wait to
watch it, whoever plays you.
Definitely gonna watch it.
And what do you want to do next?
Is there one direction you're really excited to
go in?
I think right now, in this time of my life and
you're like, who am I
like athlete?
You're like, no,
I want to make people laugh because it brings me
a lot of joy. And in a world and things
can feel so crazy.
It's nice to be able to give an
escape to different people.
Excuse me.
Do you have any intention on, you
know, maintaining your involvement in that
competitive figure skating world?
I feel at home when I'm on the ice,
it's gone from being my job to being almost my
place of therapy.
So I have done choreography for other skaters
this year. Skating changed my life.
So to be able to still be a part of that is
important to me.
Thank you so much for your time.
I always love getting to spend time with you.
You're doing such wonderful things for not just
the figure skating community, but American
culture.
I thought American culture needed a little bit
of a boost. Right.
And you, I think, are doing wonderful thing.
Thank you Adam. Love you.
Love you.
This video was a collab between me and the
Olympic Channel. Make sure you watch the other
video right here
and there's something
else to click here.
Is there? I dunno.