Here's 13-Year-Old Adam Rippon Talking About His Olympic Dreams

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Adam Rippon, in case you haven't heard, is America's sweetheart. He's a freakishly talented figure skater, asks the hard questions about Olympic condoms, and is the first openly gay American to qualify for the Winter Olympics. On Monday, the 28-year-old also won a bronze medal in the team event at the PyeongChang Games.

But we were all young once, even preternaturally charming Olympians. And now we have video evidence of certified demigod Adam Rippon as a mere kid with Olympic dreams, ahead of his first singles competition on Thursday night (Friday morning in Korea). He was a bit more humble then:

In the 2003 interview with Pennsylvania TV station WNEP-T, a 13-year-old Rippon -- fresh from winning an international competition, though he'd only been skating for three and a half years -- explains his thoughts on figure skating to Jim Coles.

"As long as you remember everything your coach tells you," he says, "you’ll be OK."

When asked about the Olympics he added: "When you see, like, all these things about other people who have won the Olympics and everything, you think that you’ve done a great thing, but you’re still so far away."

Well he's not far away anymore. Now all that's left to do is make Reese Witherspoon proud.

h/t Salon

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James Chrisman is a News Writer at Thrillist who believes making snow angels should be the marquee event of the Winter Games. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @james_chrisman2.