Olympian Adam Rippon has announced his retirement from competitive figure skating, sharing the news via an emotional letter to his younger self.
Rippon, 29, earned a team event bronze medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February of this year. One of the first openly gay athletes to qualify for the US Winter Olympic team, Rippon was quick to use his voice and platform to bring attention to issues effecting the LGBTIQ+ community.
"You are a man now. You've challenged yourself and taken risks," Rippon wrote in the letter, which was part of CBS's Note to Self series.
He continued: "You make people around you laugh, and help them like who they are. You've become the role model that you wished you'd had as a kid.
"You will look in the mirror and you will see someone you like. You will look in the mirror and finally see a winner looking back at you."
He concluded the note by encouraging himself to "go out and conquer the world."
While he may be retiring from competition, the Dancing With The Stars champion has previously stated that figure skating will always be part of his life.
“I’m always going to stay involved in skating,” Rippon said in June, according to NBC.
“It’s always going to be a part of me. It’s a part of who I am for the past 20 years. It’s impossible to leave that.”
