Out figure skater Adam Rippon has
qualified for the Winter Olympics.
Rippon will join Nathan Chen and
Vincent Zhou in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month.
The selection committee went with
Rippon despite finishing fourth at the U.S. figure skating
championships Saturday night.
“I'm really grateful that the
selection committee looked at my body of work over the last two
seasons,” Rippon told reporters.
The selection makes Rippon, 28, the
U.S.'s first openly gay man to qualify for the Winter Olympics.
“I don't really care what other
people think of me,” he said on Sunday. “I'm able to go out
there and I'm really able to be unabashedly myself. I want somebody
who's young, who's struggling, who's not sure if it's OK if they are
themselves to know that it's OK.”
Other out athletes competing for spots
on Team USA include freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy and luger John
Fennell.
(Related: Gus
Kenworthy says he'll refuse Trump White House invite: “No interest
in faking support”)
Figure skater Johnny Weir, who competed
in 2006 and 2010, came out publicly in his 2011 memoir, Welcome to
My World.