Gay Olympian Adam Rippon Wants Same-Sex Competition on ‘Dancing with the Stars’

Olympic skater Adam Rippon is now hoping that producers of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, will soon feature an all same-sex season.

The openly-gay Olympian who competed in the 2018 Winter Games in PeyongChang, South Korea, enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a same-sex competition offered by another member of this season’s contestants, Fox News reported.

Dance professional Gleb Savchenko and women’s college basketball player Arike Ogunbowale were eliminated in the May 7 broadcast of the dance competition show. However, as he headed toward the exits, Savchenko noted that one day he would like to see a DWTS season with all same-sex couples.

When asked about the idea, Rippon gave an enthusiastic endorsement saying, “I think that would be awesome. Yeah, so cool.”

Rippon also noted that he has already danced with one of the other male contestants, two-time World Latin Dance Champion and two-time DWTS winner Val Chmerkovskiy.

“I’ve actually gotten to dance with Val a little bit. Now that I have the skills, I’m going to literally dance with anybody and everything!” Rippon gushed.

Rippon went on to note that he needs to be guided on the dance floor. “When I dance with Val, he’s definitely showing me which direction to go,” Rippon said, “and when I dance with Jenna, I’m pretending I am ’cause she’s really leading me throughout the whole thing.”

Several other DWTS contestants also agreed that a same-sex season would be ideal. Contestant and ice skater Mirai Nagasu said she would watch such a season “with a vengeance” and would be “super into it.” Meanwhile, dancer Sharna Burgess said it would be “incredible.”

“I think that [idea’s] incredible. Same-sex ballroom dancing is a very real competition, and it’s fantastic, what is out there, and the talent and I think we’re missing out on that and hopefully we’re one of the first ‘DWTS’ of the world to do it ’cause ‘DWTS’ is in over a hundred countries,” Burgess said.

Burgess added that she would like to dance with Australian model Ruby Rose. “If I had to dance with a girl, Ruby Rose! She’s an amazing talented Aussie,” she said.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.