Adam Rippon Is the First Gay Winner of ‘Dancing with the Stars’

2018 is apparently the year of Adam Rippon breaking down gay athlete barriers. First, he became the first openly gay Olympian from the United States at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. And now, Rippon has won another competition that has surprisingly never been won by a gay person before: Dancing with the Stars.

Last night, Rippon and his partner, Jenna Johnson took home the crown during the finale of Dancing with the Stars Season 26, the all-athletes season. Beyond it being a win for the gays, it is also a major personal victory for both Rippon, who has been a fan of the show for a while, and Johnson, who was debuting as a professional dancer on this season of the show.

The growing friendship between Rippon and Johnson has been one of the main joys of the season, so we couldn’t ask for a better result.

The pair performed two dances last night. The first was a jazz routine to “Anything You Can Do” from the musical Annie Get Your Gun, which received a perfect score from the judges.

Their second dance, however, was a freestyle to “Scooby Doo Pa Pa” by DJ Kass and received the lowest scores compared to their competitors’ freestyles.

Despite that little bump in the road, Rippon and Johnson still had the combined highest scores of the night and had consistently been the winners every other week. So really, unless they pulled a BenDeLaCreme, the competition always seemed to be theirs to win. And they did!

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