Today's On the radar skater is Adam Rippon of the U.S. He finished 5th at last year's U.S. Championships with an impressive freeskate. With the absence of three of the top Americans this year (Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, and Ryan Bradley), Adam is in fine position to challenge for a top spot at this year's nationals in January. Along with Armin Mahbanoozedeh (previously profiled on ON THE RADAR), Adam will give 2-time reigning champion Jeremy Abbott a run for his money in vying for his 3rd U.S. Championship in a few months. It's going to be incredibly exciting and I can't wait! The plot thickens among these three, as not only did Adam win last year's prestigious 4 Continents event, and finish 6th to Jeremy's fifth at Adam's world debut in March, showing that he's competitive with the best in the world, Armin beat Adam for a bronze medal at the recent Skate America event. What this equals is an intriguing rivalry between these three talented contenders!
Adam incidentally is from Clarks Summit, PA, near the Scranton area, which is a stone's throw away from my hometown in Stroudsburg, in the Poconos. Adam, the oldest of 6 children, was born deaf, according to his Wikipedia entry, but an operation at Yale University when he was young, allows him to hear almost perfectly. However, on the recent Skate Canada broadcast, commentator Terry Gannon says that Adam was born with a serious eye infection, (no mention of being born deaf was made) and it wasn't discovered until he was 8-months old that he had 80 percent hearing loss. He had corrective surgery, and treatment afterward. (I believe Terry Gannon over Wikipedia since Gannon's facts come from sports researchers, who probably checked the facts with Adam).
The stories about Adam's early hearing troubles aside, Adam certainly doesn't have any trouble interpreting music, as musicality and artistic interpretation are two of his strengths. Adam is also a wonderful jumper and spinner. An incredible talent! He's a natural on the ice, and I am very much enjoying his growth as an artist, athlete, and person in his amateur skating journey so far.
Adam has two beautiful programs choreographed by Canadian choreographer David Wilson this season, but instead of posting one of those programs, I'm going to show you his short program from last season to a moving instrumental version of "Dear Father" by Neil Diamond. With this engaging performance at last year's Trophee Eric Bompard competition in Paris, France, Adam made a statement that he was a contender! He finished third overall.
Watch for Adam's awesome signature move, the "Rippon Lutz"--a triple lutz jump with both arms over the head. The irony is that the "Rippon Lutz" takes 1998 Olympic Champion Brian Boitano's famous "'Tano Lutz"--a triple lutz jump with one arm over the head--to the next level. Adam's coach, Brian Orser, was Boitano's chief rival throughout his career. The two Brian's went head to head in the highly-tauted "Battle of the Brians" at the 1998 Olympics in Calgary. In his free skate last season, Adam performed a "'Tano Lutz" directly before upping the ante with a "Rippon Lutz" on the other end of the rink. This season, he performs his "Rippon Lutz" in the early part of his freeskate, and later performs a "Tano Lutz" in combination with two double toe loops with his arm over his head. Talk about a point-getting sequence!
I know you'll enjoy Adam's 2009-2010 short program!!
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