Adam Rippon adds to his Olympic legacy by helping coach U.S. champion Mariah Bell

Adam Rippon was one of the faces of the 2018 Winter Olympics. He helped the United States win bronze in the figure skating team event, spoke up as an LGBTQ+ athlete, and charmed people with his quirky sense of humor. He then went on to win Dancing With the Stars.

Just four years later, the 32-year-old from South Abington Township in Lackawanna County, is an Olympic coach.

The only skater Rippon coaches, Mariah Bell, won first place at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Jan. 7 in Nashville, Tenn., and was named to the Olympic team that will compete next month in Beijing.

“That’s really crazy,” Rippon said the day after Bell’s triumph. “We had our little team briefing this morning. And they gave me my credential to the Olympic Games. And I got back to my room, and I got a little emotional. I was like, ‘I can’t believe that four years later, I get to have this opportunity to hold this next credential that says Coach,’ and I owe that to Mariah trusting me.”

» READ MORE: Adam Rippon won ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ A year later, he came to Philly with his new book.

Rippon is not expecting to be waiting by the boards when Bell competes, though. The Olympics have a one-coach rule due to COVID-19, and Rafael Arutyunyan is Bell’s main coach. Arutyunyan, based in Lakewood, Calif., also coaches men’s champion Nathan Chen and was Rippon’s coach when he was competing.

“When we get home, I’m going to be talking with Rafael and with Mariah, and we’ll kind of see, like, what is the best plan for her?” said Rippon, who was the 2016 U.S. men’s champion. “And how will she get the most out of her Olympic experience? And that’s a decision that we’ll make together as a team.”

Rippon’s coaching paid off in Bell’s long program when she made a last-minute decision to perform a triple lutz/double axel sequence late in her program to make up for an earlier mistake. It was a sequence the 25-year-old had never tried in competition.

“I’ve made her do so many different kinds of run-throughs,” Rippon said. “She’s done long programs where she’s had to do a triple toe at the end of everything. She’s done long programs where she’s had to do a double toe/double loop at the end of everything, a double axel at the end of everything. So maybe it’s never something she’s done in competition, but she’s prepared to make a clutch decision if she has to, and yesterday she made absolutely the right call.”

Whether or not he’ll be in Beijing, Rippon will be involved in the Olympics, as NBC hired him to host a show with another former Olympian, Ashley Wagner, who is one of his closest friends. Olympic Ice is still in the early planning stages but is scheduled to be streamed on Peacock during the Games.