A San Francisco video game programmer has been getting a lot of extra attention on social media since the Olympics began, and not because he has any direct connection to the Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
His name? Adam Rippon.
The San Francisco Rippon is not related to the figure skating dynamo Adam Rippon, whose free skate helped the U.S. win a bronze medal in the team event. But he is a fan, according to a Feb. 13 tweet on his account, @TheAdamRippon: "I am my second favorite Adam Rippon!"
When the famous Rippon, whose Twitter handle is @Adaripp, qualified for Team USA, he became the first openly gay American athlete to qualify for the Winter Olympics, according to the Washington Post. And when he publicly snubbed Vice President Mike Pence, saying he preferred not to meet with the leader of the U.S. delegation in Pyeongchang, the skating Rippon and the Bay Area Rippon both started seeing a ton of activity on social media, the Post reported.
The not-so-famous Rippon, whose Twitter profile describes him as "an indie game developer, maker of Dragon Fantasy Book I and II," is starting to gain traction as a semi-celebrity. And he's having fun with the mixed-up fans of the famous Rippon, saying he doesn't mind the attention.
For instance, in a tweet Wednesday, he said, "If @adaripp ever does SNL, I will be in the background of every sketch writing code for a video game :D."
Here are some more amusing tweets from the Bay Area's own Adam Rippon:
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