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7 best Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy moments from the Olympics

7 years ago
by gaytourism
Written by gaytourism

The pair at the Closing Ceremonies. | Photo: Twitter @guskenworthy

It is a sad time indeed. The 2018 Winter Olympics, held in PyeongChang, South Korea are over. It was an especially good two weeks for LGBTI athletes.

And before letting go of them entirely, let’s revisit some of the best moments of two stand-out stars — Team USA’s Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy. As two of the first openly out US athletes at the winter games, they quickly earned plenty of fans.

7. The best Twitter shades

Both are spectacularly good on Twitter, but Kenworthy, a skier, had some particularly epic shades.

First, he had a great response to a homophobic user.

Then, he shaded Ivanka Trump’s presence at the games.

In his tweet, he expressed his pride in all the athletes and people who made the games possible. At the end, he added: ‘Well… Everyone except Ivanka. Honestly, tf is she doing here??’

6. Adam makes celebrity friends

Figure skater Rippon became a darling in many people’s hearts. Some of his best newfound friendships just happened to be with fabulous celebrities.

First it was a Twitter friendship with Reese Witherspoon. It all began when Witherspoon tweeted that Rippon was the number one reason to watch the Olympics. After his first skate, NBC Olympics asked if she was proud of him. Her response? Totally.

Next up was Leslie Jones, Olympics’ number one fan. When she flew to PyeongChang, she tried her hand at being a figure skater commentator with Rippon. And it went so well. They should be commentators all the time.

5. Sally Field plays matchmaker with Adam

Rippon got a lot of people talking, especially about their crushes on him.

The biggest one of all, though, was Sally Field’s son. So the Hollywood actor took it upon herself to play matchmaker — and Rippon was all for it.

Though Field’s son apologized for the embarrassing moment, we’re still holding out hope for them.

4. Gus adopts a puppy

In perhaps the cutest moment of the Olympics, Kenworthy adopted a puppy. Named Beemo, she is the cutest little fuzzball.

He also used his experience visiting a dog farm to highlight the treatment of dogs raised as meat. Kenworthy didn’t criticize the culture, but he slammed the inhumane treatment of the animals on these farms.

3. Let’s get political

Politics weren’t far from the games this year. It started in earnest when Rippon criticized Vice President Mike Pence as the representative of the games. He specifically called out Pence’s anti-LGBTI stances during his political career.

Kenworthy also didn’t hold back in name-dropping Pence.

There’s a notion that figures like celebrities and athletes should ‘stick to what they know’ and, therefore, not have an opinion on politics. As if they aren’t voting citizens themselves. Which is why it was so refreshing that Rippon and Kenworthy didn’t hold back.

Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon

Kenworthy said he was ‘v proud’ after Rippon won bronze. | Photo: Twitter @guskenworthy

2. Adam wins bronze

However, Rippon made it clear, despite his outspokenness, that he didn’t want politics to overshadow his Olympics experience.

And it didn’t happen, especially when Rippon won one of the earliest medals — alongside out Candian skater Eric Radford. They each won medals in the team event. It was a great time for out athletes and representation, and even better seeing them win.

1. The TV kiss

Though Kenworthy didn’t win any medals, he made his own kind of history.

Kenworthy’s partner, Matthew Wilkas, joined him in PyeongChang. Before his first competition at the games, the couple kissed, live on TV. NBC aired the kiss and the whole United States saw Kenworthy breaking barriers.

About the kiss, Wilkas told Time it was good the kiss was televised ‘because it normalizes it more’.

Now only two years until the Summer Olympics.

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