This past Tuesday, Olympic Medalist, Adam Rippon, spoke virtually to Mr. Hernandez’s dual credit art appreciation class. Adam Rippon is a well-rounded individual who competed in the 2018 Olympics and received a bronze medal in men’s figure skating. Rippon’s career extends beyond his athletics, which makes him stand out from many other retired athletes, he went on to write a book, “Beautiful on the Outside”, which serves as a memoir to himself exploring his personal journey on becoming a successful figure-skater, including the hardships and disasters that came along with it.
Rippon made a seamless shift from the athletic world right into the entertainment industry. Competing on Dancing with the Stars in 2018, he took first place. He was chosen to be Moschino’s darling at the 2018 Oscars , wearing a custom look created by fashion designer, Jeremy Scott. Rippon was also listed as top 100 most influential people in the 2018 Time Magazine. He recently made his way back to the Olympics as a commentator during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During his conversation with students, he detailed his own personal experiences and the harsh realities he faced to get him to where he is now. These instances he thought were unlucky, truly helped his life flourish into something he never thought was possible.
“One step at a time,” Rippon said, “One situation can lead us down a different path that we never even thought was possible and might be even better than what we were originally dreaming or hoping for ourselves,”
He tells the kids that some things are out of our control, and it is best to remain unfazed and keep going on the true journey that life is.
“One thing I learned from my athletic career is that if you can go with the flow, you can take each situation and learn from it and take your next step forward based on the new information that you learned, and that will serve you the best in the long run because you will not limit yourself to just one thing,” Rippon explained.
Sophomore, Catalina Olivares, says Rippon was able to go into depth about his career and the struggles he faced, making him more relatable.
“I think that he was really good talking about his full experiences and actually took the time to mention important things that happened throughout his career,” Olivares said.
Olivares also explains that Rippon’s advice and insight on life really stuck with her.
“Something valuable that I took away from his conversation with us was how in his life he tried to not care a lot about his surroundings and only cared about himself, rather than others’ views of him,” Olivares said.
Adam Rippon was a great speaker and gave light to the reality of becoming successful. He was vulnerable while speaking and went into detail about the struggles he faced while rising to fame. This vulnerability allowed him to relate to the students on a deeper level and give them words of wisdom on how to face the ups and downs of life.
