
When he wasn’t busy being a Olympic-medal winning figure skater, Adam Rippon was on Twitter showing the world that his sense of humor might be his best asset. One of his funniest tweets he sent out during the Olympics quoted one of the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Kennedy Davenport. He said that he’d learned from his own mistakes and “now I’m a glamazon bitch ready for the runway.”
Worlds collided last night (April 24) at the Time 100 Gala when Adam Rippon finally met Ru. In a photo from the event, Rippon is seen genuflecting before the Drag Race host during the ball. Rippon was included on this year’s list of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, while RuPaul made the list last year.
Along with meeting a number of other icons, the Olympic skater also gave a short speech at the event where he thanked his biggest inspiration — his mother. “Why I think my mom is so incredible is because she has told me, along with her other children, that they are champions, that they are a genius, that they are braver than they think and they are stronger than they know,” he said.
Rippon also noted that he got the opportunity to get a whiff of a celebrity that night, and it was thanks to his mom. “I met Nicole Kidman tonight, and she even let me smell her husband,” the skater said, referring to country star Keith Urban. “If it wasn’t for the words that my mom told me, ‘never give up on your dreams,’ I never would have had that experience.”
The Olympian was announced last week as one of the people included on Time‘s annual list, accompanied by a short essay written by Cher about his cultural impact. When Time asked him at the gala about what that felt like, Rippon said “I wasn’t expecting it — it was completely unreal. She’s been a champion for so many. Truly, just completely unreal.”
Watch Rippon’s speech below.