Gus Kenworthy has officially announced his retirement from skiing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
On 19 February, the 30-year-old revealed the news after participating in his final three ski events.
During his first two runs, Kenworthy experienced two intense crashes with one resulting in him falling on the lip of the pipe. However, in the third round, he made a comeback and earned a score of 71.25 – which resulted in him coming in eighth place.
Nico Porteous of New Zealand secured the gold, with US skiers David Wise and Alex Ferreira earning the silver and bronze, respectively.
In a statement to Olympics.com, Kenworthy opened up about his final stop in his expansive and impressive sports career.
“The final hurrah. My swan song. I’m done, I’m done competing. I’ve had a career that I’m really, really proud of,” he said.
Back in January, it was announced that he would be joining Great Britain for his third Olympic appearance.
Due to his dual citizenship, he has competed on Team USA and Team GB, respectively.
Kenworthy went on to say that he was “grateful” he was able to safely walk away after those two frightening crashes.
“It wasn’t really the third round that I hoped for, but after a bad slam and run to, I’m just grateful to put one down and be walking away in one piece,” he explained.
“I’ve been on the podium of pretty much every contest and skiing for pipe and slope and big air. And I just feel so lucky to have gotten to travel the world and made so many good friends and compete in three Olympic Games. And it’s been awesome. I was super happy and grateful and feeling good.”
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In a separate interview with BBC Sport, Kenworthy opened up about his journey as a gay Olympian and how his career has always had an “expiration date”.
“I’m gay. I felt like I just didn’t fit in in sport, and to be out and proud, competing at the Olympics and all of the opportunities that have come my way since the Olympics, I couldn’t be more thankful. I know that there’s an expiration date and I’m at that date.”
Before participating in his final Olympic Games, he memorably made history in 2015 when he became the first action sports star to come out as gay.
Three years later, Kenworthy kissed his then-partner Matt Wilkas on live television before his qualifying run in the men’s slopestyle; which has since been lauded as a significant moment for the visibility of LGBTQ+ athletes.
In the February 2022 issue of GAY TIMES magazine, the cover star gave further insight into his historic coming-out announcement.
“It’s scary being the first [to come out] – I was the first in my entire sport – but a lot of my fears were unfounded,” he explains. “And the amount of support that it opened up for me, especially from the [LGBTQ+] community, is so much greater than I could have ever imagined.”
When it came to his legendary 2018 kiss, Kenworthy said it was “quite high” on his list of accomplishments.
“It was the visual representation of my games: getting to be one of the first openly gay athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics for the US,” he tells GAY TIMES.
“That will always be quite high on my list of accomplishments – not necessarily the kiss itself, but the kiss is sort of a clean visual of how I felt during that games and what I got to experience there.”
You can read his full cover interview with GAY TIMES via the GAY TIMES app, Apple News+, Readly, and Flipster.
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