--- title: Olympics 2018: Why Adam Rippon Scored Lower Without Falling description: Adam Rippon earned a bronze medal in his Olympic debut, but some spectators wondered why he didn't place higher than two skaters who fell. canonical: https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-12T16:41:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-15T18:51:57.000Z article:section: Sports og:title: Here's Why Adam Rippon Placed Lower Than Skaters Who Fell at the Olympics og:description: He earned a bronze medal in his Olympic debut og:url: https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d1fed96708aefbb/69892723fb4eac66a2895a9f/adam-ribbon-bronze-olympic-robbed.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why Adam Rippon Placed Lower Than Skaters Who Fell at the Olympics twitter:description: He earned a bronze medal in his Olympic debut twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d1fed96708aefbb/69892723fb4eac66a2895a9f/adam-ribbon-bronze-olympic-robbed.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s Why Adam Rippon Placed Lower Than Skaters Who Fell at the Olympics > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:51 PM UTCPublished: Feb 12, 2018 4:41 PM UTC  Adam Rippon celebrates after competing in the Figure Skating Team Event Men's Single Free Skating on day three of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena on Feb. 12, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea Adam Rippon celebrates after competing in the Figure Skating Team Event Men's Single Free Skating on day three of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena on Feb. 12, 2018 in Gangneung, South KoreaMaddie Meyer/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:51 PM UTCPublished: Feb 12, 2018 4:41 PM UTC U.S. figure skater [Adam Rippon](http://time.com/5144215/adam-rippon-olympics-mike-pence/) earned a bronze medal in his [Olympic debut](http://time.com/5144016/olympics-2018-adam-rippon-figure-skating/) on Monday, but his free-skating routine left some spectators wondering why he didn’t place even higher than two skaters who fell during their routines. Rippon’s performance quickly became a [fan favorite](http://time.com/5143878/adam-rippon-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/) among American viewers, and his song selection [boosted Coldplay’s song “O”](http://time.com/5151258/adam-rippon-free-skate-coldplay-song-olympics-2018/?xid=homepage) on the U.S. iTunes charts. Still, Canadian skater Patrick Chan and Mikhail Kolyada, an Olympic athlete from Russia — both of whom fell during their performances — placed first and second, respectively. It led some viewers to complain that Rippon had been robbed of a gold or silver medal, but it all comes down to figure skating’s complex scoring system. > [](https://twitter.com/BarrettAll/status/962872715739844608) > [](https://twitter.com/stephenossola/status/962873857311956992) > [](https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/962865875555700738) > [](https://twitter.com/brittanywichten/status/962864123636838402) Since 2006, the [figure-skating scoring system](http://time.com/5131773/guide-figure-skating-jumps-olympics/) has rewarded difficulty, assigning points to various jumps based on how difficult they are to master. Chan and Kolyada completed some [more challenging jumps and spins](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/02/08/how-to-watch-figure-skating-at-the-2018-winter-olympics-in-pyeongchang/?utm%5Fterm=.162d733f8ee1) that added up to [higher scores](https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang-2018/results/en/figure-skating/results-team-event-fnl-0001mn-.htm), even after factoring in the one-point deduction for their falls. While Rippon’s skate was smooth and impressive for other reasons, he did not perform a quadruple jump, a challenging move that requires four turns. That is part of what contributed to his technical score being lower than the others. The quadruple jump has been a [point of controversy](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-figs-quads/figureskating-quads-how-far-will-they-go-idUSKBN1ET1GC) before. In the 2010 winter Olympics, U.S. skater Evan Lysacek won a gold medal without completing a quadruple jump, [drawing criticism](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-figure-skating-plushenko/even-in-defeat-yevgeny-plushenko-steals-show-idUSTRE61I1P920100219?type=sportsNews) from Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko, who came in second and argued that no competitor should win Olympic gold without doing a quadruple jump. In addition to a technical score, a figure skater’s final score also takes other components into account, including skating skills, transitions, performance and interpretation of the music. That part of Rippon’s score was higher than Kolyada’s by a fraction of a point, but it wasn’t enough to bring his total score into second place. Regardless, Rippon, the [first openly gay](http://time.com/5143135/adam-rippon-mike-pence/) American man to compete in the Winter Games, seemed pleased with his third-place finish. “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for my entire life,” he [told TIME](http://time.com/5144016/olympics-2018-adam-rippon-figure-skating/). “Now I am actually an Olympian. They have footage, they can pull it up. Let the record show that Adam Rippon is an Olympian.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/"},"headline":"Here’s Why Adam Rippon Placed Lower Than Skaters Who Fell at the Olympics","datePublished":"2018-02-12T16:41:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-15T18:51:57.000Z","description":"He earned a bronze medal in his Olympic debut","url":"https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/","keywords":["2018 Pyeongchang Olympics","Winter Olympics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d1fed96708aefbb/69892723fb4eac66a2895a9f/adam-ribbon-bronze-olympic-robbed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d1fed96708aefbb/69892723fb4eac66a2895a9f/adam-ribbon-bronze-olympic-robbed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 3","caption":"Adam Rippon Figure Skating - Winter Olympics 2018","creditText":"Maddie Meyer/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2018-pyeongchang-olympics/","name":"2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5144288/adam-rippon-olympics-2018-bronze/","name":"Here’s Why Adam Rippon Placed Lower Than Skaters Who Fell at the Olympics"}}]}] ```