Adam Rippon Announces Engagement To Jussi Pekka Kajaala

Jussi-Pekka Kajaala and Adam Rippon celebrate the 6th annual Gold Meets Golden at The House on Sunset on Jan. 5, 2019 in West Hollywood, Calif.

Adam Rippon, the first openly gay U.S. man to make a winter Olympic team, is engaged.
The 2018 Olympic team figure skating bronze medalist announced his engagement to longtime boyfriend Jussi-Pekka Kajaala in a social media post Wednesday. Rippon, who lives in Los Angeles, and his new fiancé proposed to each other while Rippon was staying with Kajaala in his native Finland.
“P and I didn’t get to see each other for almost all of 2020 because of the pandemic,” Rippon wrote on Instagram. “When there was finally a chance for me to go and see him in Finland, I jumped at it. I was there for a little over two months. While I was there, I would tell him about five million jokes that I would want to pitch during my 5 hour zoom meetings for our NBC comedy. … And he would drive me into the Finnish forest where I would attempt to try and ‘help' him shovel snow so he could keep working on the cottage he’s building.
“So, in between all that and binging the entire 4 seasons of The Crown, we bought ourselves some rings and said that magic word.. “duh!” We got ~*engaged*~ 🥂❤️”
The 2016 U.S. men’s figure skating champion, Rippon emerged as one of the breakout stars at the 2018 Olympics, where he helped the U.S. win a bronze medal and finished 10th individually, while also winning fans over with his charismatic interviews, flashy costumes and entertaining social media posts.
Rippon retired from skating after the Olympics and has taken on a variety of roles since then, including winning “Dancing with the Stars” and making cameos on “Will & Graces” and a Taylor Swift music video. He’s also remained close to the sport as a choreographer and coach.
In addition, Rippon announced last fall that he was working with NBC to develop a comedy series centered around figure skating.