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

I can see my competitors sweating, and I am cool as a cucumber.

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.'

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

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

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'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.

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

Given this platform of being an Olympic athlete, I think it's really important that we stand up for what we believe in, and we speak out against things that we think are wrong and injust.