They made such a huge fuss about Rippon solely because he is gay — he didn’t medal (except as the weak end of the team event) and is nowhere near the top male skaters in the world, but ofc since he is part of the propaganda Olympic “GAYmes” they have to make a big deal about him, neglecting coverage of many better athletes who don’t happen to be GAY.
Actually, I would not be surprised to learn that many (most?) of the solo male figure skaters these days are gay. They're just not as "in your face" about it as Rippon. Twenty years ago, the networks would probably have gone out of their way to de-emphasize coverage of people like Rippon. Now they are front and center.