For a brief moment Olympian Adam Rippon was an NBC Olympics correspondent, but he has decided against the deal.
Just as young Olympians can lose NCAA eligibility upon accepting money from medal wins at the Olympics, so too can Olympians lose their Olympic privileges if they accept jobs during the Olympic Games. Adam Rippon joined NBC’s broadcast team on Sunday, only to decide against the move upon learning that he would be forced to relinquish his Olympian status.
According to Sports Illustrated, Rippon ultimately decided that he would rather remain an Olympian and enjoy his time in Pyeongchang rather than take the NBC position. The NBC deal would have put Rippon front and center for the remainder of the Games as a social media and television correspondent. However, if he accepted the job he would lose his ability to stay in the Team USA dorms and would not be able to walk in the Closing Ceremony upon completion of the Games. He’d also lose his Olympic credential, which would have limited his access to places other Olympians gather and access to his teammates is important, especially considering that we still have ice dance and the women’s figure skating events to look forward to.
While it would have been fun to see Adam Rippon’s unique perspective on NBC social media, it’s probably for the best that fans continue to get Rippon’s unfiltered view on everything from his own social media accounts. You have to think he’d be censored (at least a little bit) if he was working with NBC, so having a continuation of the Adam Rippon All-Access fest on his own social media is better anyway.
Though we won’t see Rippon working for NBC, we’ll still have Rippon having a good time at the Olympics and that’s still a very good thing.
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