Adam Rippon is engaged! The Olympic figure skater tied the knot recently with his longtime boyfriend in Finland, after the couple had spent most of quarantine apart.
The news came via Instagram, where Rippon posted a fabulous photo series of the happy couple celebrating with bubbles and golden rings. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rippon and his partner, Jussi-Pekka “JP” Kajaala, were physically separated from each other on opposite ends of the world.
When Rippon visited for the holidays, they certainly made the most of it.
“I’m excited to marry JP because he’s just the best,” Rippon told PEOPLE. “He’s kind, he’s funny, and he’s just as beautiful on the inside as he is on the out. He’s my cheerleader and I’m his. I just love him a lot.”
Rippon captured our hearts in 2018, when he became the first openly gay athlete in U.S. history to medal at the Winter Olympics. As our Cyd Zeigler wrote at the time, Rippon transcended the Olympic Games, winning over the country with his sass and pizzazz.
A couple of months later, Rippon met Kajaala in Finland, where he was training for competition. The romance started with a right swipe on Tinder, and hasn’t stopped.
“I was with JP, the first time that I thought, ‘oh yeah,’ I know the feeling of when you’re like, ‘oh, I could marry somebody,’” Rippon said on “Good Morning America.”
EXCLUSIVE: Olympian @AdamRippon dishes to @GMA on his engagement with boyfriend, Jussi-Pekka Kajaala, fondly known as, JP ❤️🌈https://t.co/CcIWUHKwBr pic.twitter.com/8zf5SmmcbL
— Good Morning America 💛💛 (@GMA) February 10, 2021
The proposal came in Helsinki, where the couple enjoyed dinner and walked around the Finnish capital to commemorate the special occasion. Rippon told PEOPLE they proposed to each other simultaneously.
“We did everything together,” he said. “We bought the rings together and picked them up at the same time. I really wanted us to have rings from Finland.”
Kajaala, who curates his own YouTube channel, is hoping to move to Los Angeles by the end of the year, Rippon says. They haven’t started wedding planning yet; but when they do, we want to know all of the deets.
If we all can’t marry Adam, at least we can live vicariously through the couple on Insta, right?