Team USA figure skater Adam Rippon seems to have brought some extra baggage to his Olympic debut in South Korea — a feud with Vice President Mike Pence.
As Pence arrived in Pyeongchang Thursday (Feb. 8), news outlets as varied as USA Today and Vogue reported Rippon, who had criticized Pence for his support of gay conversion therapy, turned down an offer to meet with the vice president in South Korea.
The vice president, who is leading the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics, denied such an offer was made and tweeted that it was “fake news.” But several news outlets say they confirmed the offer with the vice president’s office.
The team event in figure skating began on Thursday (Feb. 8).
At 28, the Los Angeles-based Rippon is the oldest American skater to make the Olympic team in 80 years. He is also the first openly gay athlete to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics, joined there by Gus Kenworthy, an openly gay snowboarder, who qualified a few days after Rippon.
After Rippon qualified for Team USA, a reporter asked what he thought of the appointment of Pence as the head of the U.S. delegation to the Winter Games.
“You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?” Rippon said. “I’m not buying it.”
Rippon was referring to Pence’s 2000 campaign for U.S. Senate when he supported funding “institutions which…
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