Olympic skater Adam Rippon celebrated his thirtieth birthday the best way that he knew how; on the ice. He shared a stunning performance (that he also shared on his Instagram page) to Ben Platt’s gorgeous cover of the Joni Mitchell classic “River” (recently featured on the Netflix series The Politician)
When asked why he wanted to skate to this classic and now reimagined song, his answer was very simple. He shared on Instagram:
River by @bensplatt “Today is my 30th birthday. I couldn’t be more grateful for everything and everyone in my life. Thank you for always sending love and positive energy my way. I hope I’m always able to do the same for you. “I wanted to do something fun for myself so I asked one of my old skating choreographers, Cindy Stuart, to put this together with me. She is amazing. And Ben Platt is also amazing (duh) and when I heard him do a cover of this song I knew I had to skate to it. Huge thank you to @oniceperspectives who put this all together too HBD 2 ME. I LOVE YOU.”
Recently, Rippon has been making news off the ice as well, as he announced his retirement this past November from competitive skating. Post-Olympics, Rippon snagged the mirrorball trophy on Season 26 of Dancing With The Stars with dance partner Jenna Johnson. Additionally, his memoir, Beautiful on the Outside, was published and he premiered two different shows on two different platforms. He is co-hosting Relationship Rehab with comedian and former The View co-host Michelle Collins (on Facebook Watch), as well as his own show on YouTube titled Break The Ice, where he recently featured RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11 contestant Soju.