Telluride, CO – Telluride native and professional freeskier Gus Kenworthy chose a pair of interviews published on Thursday to come out as gay.
Kenworthy, 24, told the Associated Press and ESPN that he would have preferred to reveal his sexuality by embracing his boyfriend after winning the silver medal in a U.S. sweep of the first Olympic slopestyle in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, as a demonstration against that country’s policies against homosexuality. In the end, however, he decided that the timing then just wasn’t right.
“Recently though, I’ve gotten to the point where the pain of holding onto the lie is greater than the fear of letting go, and I’m proud to finally be letting my guard down,” Kenworthy wrote on Instagram on Thursday after the ESPN story was released. “I am so thankful to ESPN for giving me this opportunity and to (author) Alyssa Roenigk for telling my story to the world. I think about the pain I put myself through by closeting myself for so long and it breaks my heart. If only I knew then what I know now: that the people who love you, who really care about you, will be by your side no matter what; and, that those who aren’t accepting of you are not the people you want or need in your life anyway. ”
Growing up in a Colorado mountain town with a year-round population of only 2,000, Kenworthy’s graduating class consisted of only 48 kids. As he questioned whether his small town friends would accept his sexual preference, he focused instead on his skiing to channel his energy.
While he had long realized that he was gay, Kenworthy says that when turning pro at only age 16 his sexuality wasn’t something that he yet wanted to accept. “I pushed my feelings away in the hopes that it was a passing phase but the thought of being found out kept me up at night. I constantly felt anxious, depressed and even suicidal,” he says. “Looking back, it’s crazy to see how far I’ve come. For most of my life I’ve dreaded the day that people would find out I was gay. Now, I couldn’t be more excited to tell you all the truth.”
Currently at what is arguably the height of his career, unlike the NBA’s Jason Collins or the NFL’s Michael Sam, Kenworthy’s decision to come out now is a gutsy one. For all of its counterculture image, the freeskiing world values conformity, and a gay athlete doesn’t necessarily fit that image. Kenworthy has put some high-priced sponsorship deals on the line, as no one is really sure if the action sports world is ready to embrace a hero who’s homosexual.
Teammates and ski team officials on Thursday nevertheless rallied in support Kenworthy, one of the first Winter Olympic medalists to reveal that he’s gay.
“We’ve long admired Gus Kenworthy’s courage as an athlete, pioneering a new sport to win an Olympic medal,” said U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) President and CEO Tiger Shaw. “Today, we admire Gus for having the strength to tell the world who he is as a person, and paving the way for others to do the same.”
“Gus is one of the best skiers in the world,” added U.S. Freeskiing teammate Joss Christensen, who shared the Olympic podium with Kenworthy. “He’s also one of my best friends and a great teammate. I’m just happy for Gus that he can be who he is. It’s a brave and strong thing for him to do and this gives me so much respect for him.”
“This is going to make his life a lot easier,” mused teammate Bobby Brown. “It’s got to be tough holding on to something like this for a long time and I know it’s been a big weight on his shoulders. So, it’s going to be cool for him to be his true self and for everyone to know him at the core. It’s going to take a lot of weight off his shoulders and he’s going to be a lot happier in life and in skiing.”