Tag Archives: Adam Rippon

Seven More Fabulous Out Gay People of Figure Skating (and One Bisexual Woman)

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I met US pairs skaters Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc at the 2017 US Nationals where they won the pairs bronze medal.

HOT!! – on January 23rd I published my third and most recent installment of this series – Seven more fabulous out LGBTQ+ athletes of figure skating.

Blog author Stan Kimer, in addition to training as an adult competitive figure skater himself, is a career development and diversity consultant with a deep expertise in corporate LGBTQ diversity strategy and training. Please explore the rest of my website (which includes my own figure skating page) and never hesitate to contact me to discuss diversity training for your organization, or pass my name onto your HR department.

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Important Note: This blog only features athletes who voluntarily, personally and publicly disclosed themselves as gay.

Since my original “Fabulous Out Gay Men of Figure Skating” is almost two years old, I decided to write this second installation with 2018 being an Olympic year. In addition to my original blog’s Adam Rippon and Eric Radford more than likely competing, Brian Orser coaching and Johnny Weir announcing the 2018 figure skating at this year’s Olympics, this blog contains a few more people we should be seeing there.

Before or after reading this blog, you may want to relook at the original 2016 blog where I also provided some information and link about figure skating not only being a legitimate sport, but about how truly difficult it is.

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These fabulous men who are excellent role models and testament to hard work are, in alphabetical order:

Christopher Caluza cuddles a koala in Australia as he travels the world on a cruise line’s figure skating staff.

Christopher Caluza – This dual-citizen Filipino-American figure skater began his early career skating for the US, and then later for the Philippines. Christopher was the Filipino national champion in 2012 and 2013, and represented the Philippines at the Figure Skating World Championships for 3 years. He is now retired from competitive skating and enjoys seeing the world while skating in the ice cast of Royal Caribbean Cruises. Christopher is very active on Facebook as an out proud man who advocates for respect and equality for all people.

Guillaume Cizeron – UPDATE: On 17 May 2020, in honour of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, he came out as gay with a post on Instagram showing him with his boyfriend. This extremely handsome and sexy man from France (check out his public Facebook page!) is a two time world ice dance champion with his partner Gabriella Papadakis. Papadakis and Cizeron currently hold the world’s record top ice dance international competitive score and are one of the favorites to win Olympic gold in 2018.  UPDATE:  Papadakis and Cizeron did indeed win the Olympic gold medal.

J. Scott Driscoll – Scott was a competitive American skater in the junior and senior ranks in the early 1980s, and then a frequent medalist thereafter in the US Open Professional Championship ranks. Now coaching in Palm Springs, California, what is extraordinary about Scott is his use of his skating to promote anti-bullying and acceptance of LGBT people through his beautiful and dramatic program, “Your Love Matters.” Link to performance on Youtube.

Timothy Goebel – This American skater, the Olympic men’s bronze medalist in 2002, known in the skating community as “the quad king,” helped usher in the “quad jump revolution” within men’s figure skating. Probably the most technically proficient skater of his day, Timothy made Olympic history in 2002 by being the first man to successfully land a quadruple salchow in combination at an Olympic competition. This one time US gold medalist and three time silver medalist married his long time boyfriend Thomas Luciano in April, 2017.

Timothy LeDuc – This dark-haired tall handsome American pairs skater initially competed with three different partners from 2009 – 2014 with their best senior’s pair finish of 7th in the US Championships with DeeDee Lang in 2014. After retiring and then performing on a cruise line ice skating performance staff, Timothy was called out of retirement to re-enter competitive pairs skating with a new partner, Ashley Cain. The tremendously hard working team accomplished the amazing feat of placing third at the 2017 US Nationals in just their first year together! Be looking for this tall pair with their gorgeous extensions and long lines to compete for US and world medals in the years to come.

Javier Raya of Spain (left in photo) came out by expressing his happiness of finding the love of his life, Andrew Nicholson.

Javier Raya – Javier Raya is viewed as the “number two” male skater in Spain just behind 2-time world and 5-time European champion Javier Fernandez. Javier Raya, a crowd favorite with his emotional skating, is the 5-time Spain silver medalist and will surely be making his second Olympic appearance in 2018. He proudly came out as a gay man in May 2016 by posting a charming photo kissing his boyfriend Andrew Nicholson and writing, “I have to say that right now I feel like the luckiest person in the world!”

David Wilson – this out and proud world-class choreographer has worked with several Olympic medalist in the past and will likely have several of his skaters participating in the 2018 Olympics. After his competitive career was cut short at the age of 18 due to Osgood-Schlatter disease, he toured with various ice shows before the entering the choreography field. David has now established himself as one of the top and in demand choreographers and his clients have included Olympic competitors and medalists like Jeremy Abbott, Patrick Chan, Yuzuru Hanyu, Kim Yuna, Fumie Suguri and Johnny Weir.

Popular multiple time Japanese champion Fumie Suguri (photo_by_Carmichael)

And though this blog is specifically about gay men, I would like to do a shout out to female skater Fumie Suguri. This four-time Japanese National Champion finished 5th in the 2002 Olympics and 4th in 2006. She came out in the Japanese media in 2014 as bisexual, quite a bold move within the Japanese culture.

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Additional related blog! Please read “Five Key Messages on The Importance of Out Gay Olympic Athletes”

Note January 18, 2018: A few weeks after publishing this blog, Outsports did an interview with and story about Timothy LeDuc. Link to the story.

Added February 8, 2018: A fantastic short television segment and interview with Timothy LeDuc who us featured in this blog.

US Figure Skating’s Fantastic New Campaign: “Get Up!”

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ashley-and-miraiAs a long time figure skating fan and enthusiast, and now more recently as an aspiring adult competitive figure skater myself (yep – started at age 59,) my love for this sport is deepening. And now I am even more excited about the recently announced “Get Up” campaign from the US Figure Skating Association. The main theme is that, in all aspects of our lives, we may fall, but the more times we get up and persevere, the stronger we become.

Figure Skating is a tough sport! (link to article) It may look smooth and glamorous, but those falls on that hard ice are brutal to the body and soul. But there is a lesson here that we can apply to our personal, athletic and even business lives – that when we fall, instead of just lying there feel sorry for ourselves, we need to pick ourselves up, learn from our mistake or from the challenge we were presented, and continue toward our goal.

Here are several examples of skaters (including myself) who picked ourselves up after a fall and continued on to become stronger.

• The first example shared in the December 2016 US Figure Skating Magazine was from 4-time US Champion Jeremy Abbott’s appearance at the 2014 Olympics. He had an extremely hard fall and devastating crash into the boards, but after 13 agonizing seconds picked himself up and completed his short program.

• And then there is one of my favorites, 2016 US Men’s Champion Adam Rippon. After being our 2012 silver medalist, Adam was training hard and primed for his dream of making the 2014 Olympic team, but those dreams were shattered as he fell to his worst finish ever at nationals at eighth. Many skaters would call it quits after that disappointment, but Adam resolved to train harder than ever, winning his first Senior National title in 2016 and then making his first Grand Prix final that Fall.

• Two of my favorite female skaters are Mirai Nagasu and Ashley Wagner. After finish third at US Nationals in 2014 and then be shockingly omitted from our Olympic Team, Mirai took the disappointment with maturity and grace and continue to train hard and improve, and continues to delight fans with her beautiful programs. And Ashley Wagner has had many ups and down in long career, and now as the oldest US female competitor finished second at 2016 Worlds, ending the USA’s ten year drought of winning a ladies’ world medal.

• And not only adults, but young teens can exhibit the guts of coming back from a major fall. Early last year, I wrote of such a young man in what became my fifth most read blog of 2016. Featuring a young teen with great determination, “Lessons from a Young Teen” asks my readers how would they handle going from second place to second from the bottom in one year in a sports competition. This inspirational short piece shares how a young figure skating athlete handled this challenge.
 
hip-and-hawaii• And finally in my own life. I started figure skating at age 59 and had just passed my first two tests and preparing to enter a major competition in Atlanta. But in August, I fractured my hip. But that is not going to stop me; after being on crutches most of August and September, I am back on the ice and just skated in our local club’s Christmas exhibition, and now preparing to compete in the Eastern USA Adult Sectionals in March.
 
 
I do hope this “Get Up” campaign from US Figure Skating touches many people and resonates with everyone since this important lesson of getting up after a tough time applies in all aspects of life – personally, professionally and of course in sports!