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. 。
Tweet may have been deleted。
He'll join twice national champion Nathan Chen and 2017 world junior champion Vincent Zhou to represent the U.S in figure skating. 。
SEE ALSO:The heartwarming moment a hockey player tells his dad he made the Olympics 。“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. 。
Thanks for signing up!
。Adam Rippon performs at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating at Herb Brooks Arena on Nov. 25, 2017 in Lake Placid, United States.Credit: Maddie Meyer - ISU/ISU via Getty Images。
Rippon has credited his coming out as having a significant impact on his successful figure skating career, attributing it to his winning the 2016 U.S. championships. 。
"When I came out, it was a huge reason of why I was able to win the U.S. championships in 2016." 。
"A few years ago, I made the decision to come out publicly as gay — spoiler alert," Rippon told U.S. Figure Skating in a promotional video. "I made that decision because I remember when I was younger, and I was unsure of who I was or afraid of what other people might think, I looked to other people who shared their stories."。
"I feel like, when I came out, it was a huge reason of why I was able to win the U.S. championships in 2016 ... I was able to perform and genuinely show the judges and the audience who I was." 。
"I think being fearless is just unapologetically yourself," he said. "My secret weapon is: I really just am who I am when I go out there ... No one's going to get in my way because I have gotten out of my own way." 。
Rippon will hopefully pave the way for more American athletes to come out. According to Outsports, only seven of 2,900 athletes from 88 countries that competed at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia were out — all were women and not one was from the U.S. 。
Rippon's sexuality shouldn't matter at all. It shouldn't even be a headline. But significant discrimination against LGBTQ folks still exists, so this is a landmark we'd like to raise a toast to. 。
Tweet may have been deleted 。
Featured Video For You。
(责任编辑:百科)
Samsung Galaxy Note7 teardown reveals the magic behind the phone's iris scanner
Nintendo sold almost a million Switches in a single month
10 burning questions we have about the 'Thor: Ragnarok' trailer
Clean energy projects soared in 2016 as solar and wind got cheaper
U.S. government issues warning on McDonald's recalled wearable devicesNew Zealand designer's photo series celebrates the elegance of aging
Not only is age nothin’ but a number -- it can be a asset when it comes to style.
。 That’
...[详细]Iron Chef is coming back! Iron Chef is coming back!
We don't mean to get too excited but ... Iron Chefis coming back! Iron Chefis coming back! This time
...[详细]Large group of cows elects unsuspecting beaver as leader
Congratulations to these cattle on discovering the democratic process.。Saskatchewan ranch owner Adri
...[详细]Farm spices up yoga class with a bunch of baby goats
Call it。 Goga.。 Or。 Yoat。. Or
。 Goyoatga.。 Whatever you wanna call it, well, yeah: Someone's doing yo
...[详细]Katy Perry talks 'Rise,' her next batch of songs, and how to survive Twitter
Katy Perry recently surpassed 90 million followers on Twitter, making her the person with the most f
...[详细]Man kicked out of city council meeting for trying to recreate Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad
After Kendall Jenner's now-infamous Pepsi ad was memed to hell on Twitter, we really should have exp
...[详细]Critics worship 'American Gods'
Starz officially enters the book-to-TV-fantasy arena with American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman's 2001
...[详细]10 burning questions we have about the 'Thor: Ragnarok' trailer
The end is nigh. And honestly, it looks really, really fun.Marvel Studios has just shared the first
...[详细]Carlos Beltran made a very interesting hair choice
Apparently the Texas Rangers' Carlos Beltran is taking hair advice from another Carlos in sports --
...[详细]Farm spices up yoga class with a bunch of baby goats
Call it。 Goga.
。 Or。 Yoat。. Or。 Goyoatga.。 Whatever you wanna call it, well, yeah: Someone's doing yo
...[详细]Visualizing July's astounding global temperature records

Some 'Overwatch' features disabled as 'Uprising' launch causes issues
