Skier G Kenworthy Talks 2018 Olympics as a Gay Athlete

Contents:

• OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY ON G OUT AS GAY, TURNG PRO, AND HOW HE BALANC SPORTS, ACTG, AND ADVOCY
• OLYMPIAN G KENWORTHY ON HIS IMPACT AS THE 'GAY SKIER' — AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE SOCHI DOGS
• U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY
• G KENWORTHY, WORLD CHAMPN SKIER, COM OUT AS GAY
• HOW USA OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY REFED 'GAY'
• FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY
• G KENWORTHY’S PROUD TO BE ‘THE GAY SKIER’ HEADG INTO THE OLYMPICS
• G KENWORTHY: ‘COMG OUT AS GAY SHOULDN’T BE NEWSWORTHY’
• FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY
• AN LGBTQ PARTY ON THE SLOP AT TELLURI GAY SKI WEEK
• PRO SKIER ALEX SCHLOPY CHALLENG SPORT TO EMBRACE GAY SKIERS, SNOWBOARRS
• FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY
• FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY ON G OUT AS GAY, TURNG PRO, AND HOW HE BALANC SPORTS, ACTG, AND ADVOCY

When G Kenworthy peted at the Sochi Olympics 2014 he was aaid that someone would fd out that he is gay -- fast-forward eight years and he is out and proud, as are dozens of other athlet at the Beijg Brish-Amerin etyle skier, who won silver for the Uned Stat Sochi the sloptyle petn, famoly kissed his boyiend Matt Wilkas live on televisn before his qualifyg n four years later at the Olympics Pyeongchang. “Hontly, means the world to me to get to pete here as an out proud gay man and to know that there are other out LGBTQ athlet that are here petg, ” he said.

Kenworthy never thought he would see the day when he would be on the world stage as an out gay man and hop will reach the stage where stori such as his are no longer newsworthy.

OLYMPIAN G KENWORTHY ON HIS IMPACT AS THE 'GAY SKIER' — AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE SOCHI DOGS

G Kenworthy beme the first Olympic skier to e out as gay 2015. When Amerin etyle skier G Kenworthy publicly me out as gay 2015, he helped change the landspe of then-24-year-old was sick of hidg who he really was, and even though he had jt won a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Wter Olympics, he was more miserable than ever.

Outsports lled "the gay sports moment of 2018.

"When I was younger all my role mols weren't gay role mols, they were jt sports role mols, " he said.

U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

Growg up Telluri, a ty ski town, Kenworthy didn't have too many role mols om the gay muny. He looked up to celebri like Ricky Mart, Ellen Page, and Troye Sivan for g out, but he only knew one gay person his immediate circle.

"I actually have an uncle who's gay, " Kenworthy said, "and my fay ador my uncle Sam, but he and I many ways uldn't be more different. I thk that was part of the thg that ma hard for me when I was g to terms wh the fact that I was gay. "I realized that 'gay' is jt part of someone, don't fe anythg else about them, " he said.

He is now about to pete for Great Bra, the untry of his birth, his third and fal Olympics Beijg and Kenworthy will ski as a gay man, an LGBTQ+ activist and an most important facet of his transn is that, as Kenworthy says: “I’m jt much happier now than I was back then when I wasn’t livg my life thentilly. He had not e out then but was he distrsed by homophobia Rsia? Photograph: Fei Maohua/RexKenworthy looks surprised when I ask who was the first person he me out to outsi the gay muny?

G KENWORTHY, WORLD CHAMPN SKIER, COM OUT AS GAY

“Oh, the gay muny were the last people I me out to.

I didn’t have a sgle gay iend.

“I don’t thk people were tryg to be malic but if a ski urse was bad they’d say: ‘This urse is so gay. ‘This is gay, that’s gay, don’t be a faggot. I was gay and I wanted to enjoy that part of myself but I felt I uldn’t do that bee of my sport.

HOW USA OLYMPIC SKIER G KENWORTHY REFED 'GAY'

I was not skig well and so I thought: ‘It’s bee I’m gay and so I want to qu. He actually asked me at the X Gam 2015: ‘Are you gay?

Kenworthy was the first gay athlete to kiss his partner on work televisn. And untri where homosexualy is punishable by ath or jail, you shouldn’t be allowed to pete the Olympics at all.

FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

“Adam Rippon and I were the first two openly gay men to go to the [2018] Wter Olympics for Team USA, which is sane. It was the first time that there were trans and non-bary and gay and lbian athlet. And so, when I ask him to sum up his mood as a proudly gay athlete about to enter his fal Wter Olympics for a new untry, Kenworthy ps.

The followg year, Kenworthy announced he was gay on the ver of ESPN the Magaze, the first Amerin actn sports petor to do so. In late January, Kenworthy qualified for Team USA, makg him one of two openly gay men to pete for Ameri at the Wter Olympics alongsi figure skater Adam Rippon, who ma the cut earlier that month. “Bee some regards ’s your own bs, ’s not really anybody else’s, but I thk that the reason that I wanted to do a big way and make a big splash was bee ’s so unexpected our sport and actn sports, and I thk that the only way to really battle homophobia and battle stereotyp is jt by havg visibily and beg public and open and hont and thentic.

“I don’t thk I uld have e out as a gay athlete 30 years ago and expected to be succsful my sport, ” he told TIME December. “I don’t thk that one thg f me, but I know that by g out the way that I did sort of almost pneerg actn sports — to take that stand — that ’s always gog to be a label that is stuck wh me and I know that I’ll always be the ‘gay skier, ’ and actually don’t bother me, ” he said.

G KENWORTHY’S PROUD TO BE ‘THE GAY SKIER’ HEADG INTO THE OLYMPICS

(Follow @alyroe on Twter) story is part of ESPN's ongog seri explorg what means to be an openly gay athlete the post-acceptance world. And so, as we s down together Los Angel September, he begs the only way he knows how: "I gus I should start by sayg, 'I'm gay. If they knew he was gay, would the kids idolize him as much?

Would his iends stop g "gay" as a scriptor for all thgs that suck? Kenworthy knew he was gay as early as 5 years old and felt different om other boys.

"Unls you're gay, beg gay has never been looked at as beg ol. Gay marriage is legal now, attus are changg.

G KENWORTHY: ‘COMG OUT AS GAY SHOULDN’T BE NEWSWORTHY’

Take, for stance, the former sponsor who ma a c anti-gay remark about why Kenworthy was once late to a petn.

Take his physil therapist, who once told Kenworthy that he uldn't even image talkg to a gay guy all night. ("I thought, 'You've talked to a gay guy for two hours a day, four days a week for seven months. ' ")Take the nstant dmbeat of livg a culture that the words "gay" and "fag" as monly as "stoked.

Today, might be a Facebook rant or an Instagram post om a pro snowboarr who's annoyed that "skier fags" have filtrated another ntt or plag that a shoddy halfpipe is "gay. "I'm sure there have been gay actn sports athlet the past, " Dorey says. G Kenworthy, who won a silver medal skig's sloptyle event at the 2014 Wter Olympics, has e out as gay the latt issue of ESPN The Magaze.

FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

And so, as we s down together Los Angel September, he begs the only way he knows how: "I gus I should start by sayg, ‘I'm gay.

Md you, Kenworthy was gog through this as a gay men Sochi. The timg, to say nothg of the untry, wasn't que right to tell the world he was gay. "I am gay, " Kenworthy said posts on Twter and Facebook which he shared the ver of the latt issue of the magaze.

AN LGBTQ PARTY ON THE SLOP AT TELLURI GAY SKI WEEK

If somethg is ol, 's dope; if 's unol, 's urban dictnary f "gay" as "often ed to scribe somethg stupid or unfortunate. Origatg om homophobia. He's the Amerin skier who rcued a bunch of stray puppi om Sochi Rsia (where he also won an Olympic silver medal) and brought them to Ameri for a better life; and now he's the out and proud "gay" skier.

PRO SKIER ALEX SCHLOPY CHALLENG SPORT TO EMBRACE GAY SKIERS, SNOWBOARRS

While the ESPN article says discs what means "to be an openly gay athlete a post-acceptance world, " I challenge the ia that 2016 is post-acceptance. Homophobia is still so prevalent, pecially nservative Ameri where homosexualy is still nsired by many to be a s; and crazi like Kim Davi are prepared to go to jail to fend their right to a heterosexual-only world. "There are few young succsful gay role mols for teenagers wrtlg wh their sexualy.

I have wrten about , then wrten about aga, and then aga and yet gay the ski world is as much a choice as beg female is. The fact that Kenworthy knew he was gay om the age of five, liv a liberal ski town of Telluri, and is born to clearly acceptg and supportive parents and still felt he uld not e out until now shows that "post-acceptance" era that ESPN refers to is yet to tly two percent of Amerin men (willg to adm ) intify as homosexual so chanc are G Kenworthy is not alone on that podium level.

FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

If his g out spir one other athlete to do the same then fantastic, if his willgns to live his te thentic life on the world stage spir one LGBT teen to rema alive and accept themselv as they are too then bloody his sports prows and tegry make ttosterone-fuelled teen boys qutn the term "gay" as rogatory then that is another step towards the acceptance that we all aspire too -- gay, bisexual, ethnic, geek, female, tall, short, overweight, unrweight and flawed as we humanly are. In 2015, G me out on the ver of ESPN Magaze and beme the first openly gay profsnal athlete any actn sport. At the 2018 Olympics, Kenworthy ma history by beg the first openly gay man (alongsi Adam Rippon) to pete for the U.

He has also appeared on such shows as The Late Show wh David Letterman, The Ellen Degener Show, Conan, Drop the Mic, Celebry Fay Fd, Hollywood Medium, GMA, The Today Show, Larry Kg, The Challenge and Comg Out Colton, well as been a gut judge on RuPl's Drag Race, Top Chef and Beat Bobby has appeared on the ver of ESPN: The Magaze, The Advote, Attu, Gay Tim, Man of Metropolis, OUT, People, Purist, Vulkan magaz and has been featured Archectural Digt, ESPN's The Body Issue, GQ, Interview, Paper and is an ambassador for Prada, Monster Energy, Smh Optics, Atomic Skis, Beam, CANN and MASTERS App. Five-time eki champ, Sochi silver medalist G Kenworthy out as gayplayOlympic ekier G Kenworthy's next bold move - - g out (2:38)Amerin etyle skier and Olympic medalist G Kenworthy discs why he cid to announce he is gay and how hidg this secret has affected him.

I am gay.

FIVE-TIME EKI CHAMP, SOCHI SILVER MEDALIST G KENWORTHY OUT AS GAY

He said he's known sce the age of 5 that he is gay, but he didn't start g out to fay and iends until two years ago. Ski and Snowboard Associatn (USSA), a statement issued Thursday, rallied to support Kenworthy's cisn to announce that he's gay. He had endorsement als, a huge natnal profile, a boyiend, and those clost to him knew he was gay already.

He me out 2015  an ESPN The Magaze ver story and is nsired to be the first openly gay extreme sports star.