Eric Radford (left) with fiancé Louis Fenero, and Gus Kenworthy with Adam Rippon (Photos: @Rad85E/@guskenworthy/ Twitter)
The Team Free Skating event at the Winter Olympics saw two gay athletes going head to head. Eric Radford skated with partner Meagan Duhamel for Canada on the weekend, while Adam Rippon skated solo for the USA this morning.
In the end, it was Canada which triumphed. Its team took gold with 73 points, OAR (Olympic Athletes of Russia) took silver with 66 points, and USA took 62 points for third place.
This is Radford’s second Olympics, but his first as an openly gay man. Radford came out in 2014 in an exclusive interview with Outsports. He went on to win the World Championships with Duhamel in 2015.
Eric Radford
Canada’s triumph makes Radford the first openly gay athlete to win a gold medal at the winter Olympics.
YES!! #Gold #Olympic #Pyeongchang2018 #TeamCanada #Figureskating #Pride pic.twitter.com/ZiF8Ch92Bd
— Eric Radford (@Rad85E) February 12, 2018
Adam Rippon
When he was selected to go to the games last month, Rippon became the first openly gay US athlete to be selected to participate in the Winter Olympics. He has since continued to build himself a large social media following with this witty postings and LGBTI advocacy.
He has also got into a high-profile spat with Vice President Mike Pence over the latter’s views on LGBTI rights.
After the event, he said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous at 10 a.m. in my life,’ reports USA Today. ‘I said I want to go out there and I want to skate really strong. I felt it was important to come out here and skate a very strong performance for the US team.’
Watch Rippon’s performance on the tweet below.
ADAM RIPPON. Because he slays. #WinterOlympics https://t.co/fmMl0C4Amf pic.twitter.com/fkG1KgiTb0
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 12, 2018
Among the first to congratulate Rippon on his performance was fellow gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy. He tweeted a photo of the two of them with the message, ‘v proud of this guy’.
v proud of this guy pic.twitter.com/rlTk6is3Cy
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 12, 2018
