Adam Rippon

When I found skating, it was something that was individual, and it was something that I could focus on being my best. And I loved the whole practice, and I also loved performing. It was probably the first time I felt really good about myself and that I was good at something, because I always liked being athletic.

I've been given this amazing platform as an Olympic athlete, and there are so many people out there who don't feel like their voice is being heard. I feel it's my responsibility to speak out on issues that are important.

I think it's so important for somebody like me to stand up for the things I believe in and speak up on things I don't think are right.

There's no such thing as a wardrobe malfunction - only a wardrobe opportunity.

There are so many emotions when I step on the ice.

Those are the moments athletes live for - we live for those exhilarating, breathless, take-your-breath-away, you're-on-the-seat-of-your-chair moments.

As an audience member, I like to watch what they're doing, and that's one of the reasons I love skating: because it's a performance, and I love to perform. That's my favorite aspect of skating.

My mom has always taught me to stand up for people who don't have a voice.

I love to have my own story, my own path, and forge ahead because my career isn't going to be like anyone else's.

I can't tone it down. I'm being me and being myself.

It takes a lot of effort to look this mediocre.

I remember when I told my mom that I wanted to come out, and my mom was a little hesitant. She was saying, 'Are you sure? Do you think that might affect your scores?' or, 'Is it something that you think that you need to do?' And I told her, 'I don't care. It's important to me.'

I enjoyed playing the other sports. I just sucked at them.

I came out seven times in one weekend. I have a flair for the dramatic.

I think that in figure skating, and in sports in general, that when you're young, it's considered a huge advantage because you're fearless, and you also don't have bad past experiences. But with age comes experience, and I have found that my experience is a huge advantage to me as a competitor.

I'm able to go out there, and I'm really able to be, like, unabashedly myself. And 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.

Growing up, I really didn't have a lot of role models.

It's 2018, and being an openly gay man and an athlete, that is part of the face of America now.

What makes America great is that we're all so different.

Mike Pence doesn't stand for anything that I really believe in.

I don't think he has a real concept of reality. To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he's a devout Christian man is completely contradictory.

I think I had a stress fracture before I broke my foot, and I think that was absolutely because I was not getting enough nutrients.

I looked around and saw my competitors: they're all doing these quads, and at the same time, they're a head shorter than me, they're 10 years younger than me, and they're the size of one of my legs.

When I was young, to have had somebody out there to look up to... it would have made a world of difference; it would have changed my life.

The first time I ever sang in front of a crowd of people was, like, 10,000 people in Japan at a skating exhibition.

Sometimes when you're not confident in yourself, to see someone who doesn't care - and I don't care anymore. I really don't care - it gives you that confidence.

I was living in my coach's basement.

I can't tone it down. I'm being me, and I'm being myself, and I'd be doing myself an injustice, and I'd be doing an injustice to those kids who don't feel like they're comfortable to be themselves.

I've gotten so many messages I could even get emotional thinking about it, but I've gotten so many messages from young kids all over the country that my story's resonated with them.

I'm not like a gay icon or America's gay sweetheart. I'm just America's sweetheart, and I'm just an icon.

Sometimes I just get attention, and I really don't know how it happens.

I know what it's like to be young and to feel like you don't belong.

I always said that if I had the platform and the opportunity to share my story and make it easier for others, I would - so that, in a way, I can be the role model that I was looking for as a kid.

As an athlete, I know that I'm such a perfectionist that I'll want to go out and keep working on something over and over until it's perfect. Part of growing up is learning to take a step back.

I don't follow the rules!

Being gay has never been a big deal to me, which is why it's a little funny to be getting all this attention about it.

I am usually wearing some sort of see-through when I am competing.

I don't find it distracting to be me.

I've been skating since I was 10 years old.

I remember seeing people who I thought were so confident and exuberant. I remember being young and watching Oprah and being like, 'Damn. That lady is so confident. She can talk to anybody.'

Sometimes I might meet people, and they might just not like me, not want to get to know me. And that's OK. They're boring as hell anyway.

I think what you think of as the American people embracing - I don't think, on paper, I embody anything of that perceived persona. I think that's what people are latching on to, that I'm different.

I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren't a friend of a gay person but that they think that they're sick.

It's my world, and the rest of us are living in it.

Nobody loves me as much as I love me, so I guess I'll just be my own valentine.

I've gotten a lot of attention, I think, just for being myself. I think that a lot of people, when they come to a competition, are afraid to be themselves no matter who they are.

I'm representing my country whether they like me or not.

I want to inspire other young kids, no matter what their background is or where they're from or anything like that, that they can go out there and, if you work hard, you can do anything.

They usually say that after the Olympic Games, somebody's life changes forever, and a lot of times, it's the gold medalist. But I have a feeling that my life has changed forever.

It bothers me so much that people have gone out of their way to make trans people feel less than.