At 26 years old, figure skater Adam Rippon has waited nearly an eternity to win his national championship — or at least in skating years.
His first medal, a still-totally-impressive-silver on the novice level, came when he was just 16 years old in 2005, so to nab the gold eleven years later is nothing short of a coup in the skating world.
So what’s his secret (besides the obvious: lots of flare and even more rhinestones)?
Being a witch, naturally.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Related: Is Johnny Weir Too Gay for ‘Stars On Ice,’ the Gayest Tour of the Gayest Sporting Event Ever?
During his post-win interview, Rippon gave NBC Sports a quote that left us snapping our fingers and letting out an involuntary “yas queen” or two.
“26 years old — some people have written you off. What message are you sending with this performance and with this title?” the newly lauded champ was asked.
“I’m like a witch, and you can’t kill me! I keep coming back every year and every year I get better.”
Burn, baby, burn.
Watch his interview below:
And here’s the routine that won him the gold, appropriately set to Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever”:
avesraggiana
Um, is he gay?
Bryguyf69
@avesraggiana queeried: “Um, is he gay?”
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Watch my favorite Adam Rippon interview and you’ll have your answer. This is exactly how I imagine the US Men’s Figure Skating locker room to be. Plus their straight galpal BFF. I’ve cued it to the end, when Doug Ranzzno also speaks. Rewind if you want to see the entire interview. This is Rippon’s blonde phase, which Johnny Weir hated.
https://youtu.be/tu8xQe07TQ0?t=9m50s
Captain Obvious
It’s like West Hollywood threw up.
Alan down in Florida
Sorry but that was not the performance that won him the gold medal. During the performance in the upper left hand corner there was a running total of points being earned and he never goes past the current leader’s total and when they have the totals announced it clearly says that he is in third place.
DCguy
He fell the one time he tried a quadruple jump, and yet beat two other people that did multiple quad jumps.
The announcers said that U.S. figure skating likes to reward people who have been around a long time over newer people. Seems like that is what happened here.
ProfessorMoriarty
Good God, I’m a Kinsey 6 and yet watching that video somehow made me even gayer!
Adam is a peach. Looking forward to seeing what he does next.
spiffy
When did they start allowing vocal tracks during amateur competitions?
Dawson
Figure Skating is not the sport that it was 10 or 20 years ago exactly for comments like the ones made by Tara and Johnny. Rewarding people rather than giving it to people who preformed better makes the sport seem fixed. What other sport would dare to make such a comment? Yet this is not a new practice with figure skating. Cheating or making deals with other judges is a known fact. Transparency only gets temporary attention when someone is caught yet eventually the cheater will be re-instated after we move on to a different issue.
My first Olympics I attended was in 1980 and there was no way you could hide the level of alliances already established. It was East vs. West in those days.
The sport has become a shadow of itself and no longer gets the prime time coverage that it use to get. The women have catered to the tween little girls who still dream of being little princess. While the men have lost the sense of masculinity that turns off so many people. This is not meant to be an insult but we live and have lived in an era of men’s sports that values masculinity. Johnny Weir gives insight as a commentator but he now has become the face of men’s skating.
What is telling is looking at the people who attend ice skating. Most are elderly or young girls. It use to be hard to get tickets to a National Championship. Now there are more empty seats than ever unless it is the finals of the Women’s competition. If you look at the top deck they put curtains around this section so you do not see all the empty sets. The sport makes little effort to change. Vocals music is now allowed but notice the music played. Contemporary music is never skated to as the sport still is 30 years behind and run by extremely middle age and post middle age officials. The judges, organizers and those who come to the events are not interested in music post 2000. Our ice dancers are some of the best in the world but many still dance to music over 100 years old. It is call Ice Dance yet the sport has become your grandparents sport.
As to referring yourself as a witch, that is a statement in itself. It gets the attention rather than the performance.
Bryguyf69
@Dawson wrote: “While the men have lost the sense of masculinity that turns off so many people. This is not meant to be an insult but we live and have lived in an era of men’s sports that values masculinity.”
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While I’m not old enough to know the history of figure skating, I can’t remember a time when FANS of US figure skating “values masculinity” — especially over gay-identified characteristics like creativity, grace, etc. I’m not sure why you’re lumping men’s figure skating in other “men’s sports.” They are culturally worlds apart. It’s like lumping ballroom dancing or ballet with hiphop dancing. The cultures are very different, as are the participants and fans.
I agree that it’s very different for the Russians, and maybe the Asians and even some Europeans, but men’s figure skating in the US and Canada have always been gayish (at least since Dick Button), if not openly so. Gays have been over-represented among the skaters and fans. The fans have always known that and appreciated it. And it had nothing to do with “masculinity.” I’ve done a bit of related graduate research, explaining why certain sports and professions attract gays. There are biological as well as cultural reasons, and figure skating fits every criteria.
vanfanusa
@Alan down in Florida: The score in the upper left is just the technical scores. He had the highest program components (the old presentation marks).
vanfanusa
@spiffy: After the last Olympics
vanfanusa
@Alan down in Florida: Sorry. You were right. That’s his short program in the video.
Josh447
avesraggiana wrote:
“Um, is he gay?”
Um, is the priesthood stocked with pedophiles?
Kieran
He’s no Warlock that’s for sure.
Sluggo2007
@Alan down in Florida: If you knew anything about skating (which you obviously don’t), you would know that the technical mark is only a part of the score. There is an artistic mark as well which is not shown while the skater is performing.
Ariel Hans Christian
It’s called being a POWER BOTTOM! HAHAHAHA
avesraggiana
Good grief… He should give lessons to the entire US Women’s Soccer team on How To Be A Girl.
DCguy
@Sluggo2007:
Yes, however, if you knew anything about skating you would know that for years U.S. figure skating has been accused of promoting their favorites over more qualified competitors and using the subjective artistic scores to do it. In this case it was so blatant that even the TV announcers called them out on it.
Alan down in Florida
@Sluggo2007: Have been watching US ice skating since before puberty (over 55 years ago). Had you watched me skating around our apartment in my gym socks you would have know that I was a queer in training. I am well aware of how it is scored – which is how I recognized that a performance trumpeted by Queerty as being his winning performance was not in fact what was being shown. I can only imagine how amazing his long program was for him to have leapfrog past 2 other skaters to take the gold medal.
CWM85
There are so many gay skaters yet only like one famous one is out who is still competing. Don’t expect this one to come out either. Its so weird.
Bryguyf69
TEST. I want to see if this posts. Several of my previous attempts don’t show up. Others are complaining too but Queerty has NEVER been responsive.
Bryguyf69
@CWM85: TEST. my reply won’t show up.
Bryguyf69
@CWM85: Let’s try again…
ADam Rippom is already out. He made the announcement in the Oct 2015 issue of Skating.
DCguy
@Alan down in Florida:
He was the only one in the top three who fell, and the only one who did not perform a quadruple jump.
WizardKrishna
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