Hiding everything away is so painful. I’m just at that point where I’m ready to open up and let everyone see me for me and I hope everyone accepts it.”
In this Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, photo, Gus Kenworthy, a freestyle skier who won a silver medal in Sochi, poses in his home in Denver. The timing, to say nothing of the country, wasn’t quite right to tell the world he was gay. And so Kenworthy left Russia last February better known as the compassionate daredevil who adopted several stray dogs he came across in the mountains _ and as the man who was part of an historic U.S. sweep of the first Olympic ski slopestyle contest. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The tweet accompanied a photo of the athlete on the cover of the latest ESPN Magazine, which is publishing a profile on Kenworthy and the struggle he’s faced in coming out.
That struggle has been especially difficult as a freeskier, Kenworthy told ESPN, a sport he acknowledges glorifies the “alpha male thing” at times. Kenworthy said that in his darkest moments, he even considered taking his own life.
“Hiding everything away is so painful,” he said in a video on ESPN. “You’re constantly lying and constantly feeling like you’re being deceitful. I’m just at that point where I’m ready to open up and let everyone see me for me and I hope everyone accepts it.”
Kenworthy earned a silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and then stayed in Russia for an extra month to rescue stray dogs and bring them home to Denver.
Plenty of athletes voiced their support for Kenworthy following his announcement, including the U.S. Freeskiing team, which tweeted that it was “A huge day in action sports, the@Olympics and in @guskenworthy’s life. We stand with him and support him.”
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