Out Skating Superstar Adam Rippon Donates Costume to Smithsonian
Openly gay Olympian figure skater Adam Rippon has donated one of the costumes he sported at the Winter Olympics to the Smithsonian Institute, the Washington Post reported.
Rippon, 28, announced the gift in a tweet earlier this week, adding, "Pretty cool to soon have something on display in the American History Museum."
I officially donated my Olympic costume to the @smithsonian today. Pretty cool to soon have something on display in the American History Museum. Now, I just need to convince someone that they need to be next to the ruby slippers. pic.twitter.com/YIgkSBcyXv— Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) September 17, 2018
In the comments thread that followed the post, Rippon shot down the suggestion that he had made the donation on his own initiative, and not at the invitation of the museum. Clarified Rippon, "They reached out to my agent right after the Olympics. I held off on donating it until I was able to do it in person. It should be on display sometime next year."
Even before he took the bronze medal at the Olympics earlier this year, Rippon made headlines with his outspoken responses to anti-gay politicians such as Vice President Mike Pence. He also charmed legions of fans when he and fellow gay Olympian, the ski champion Gus Kenworthy, took to Twitter together to post photos of themselves.
Since then, the young star has proved himself a natural denizen of the limelight, posing in the buff for ESPN's Body Issue and lining up a guest appearance on the revived hit comedy "Will & Grace."