Gus Kenworthy on Coming Out, Criticism and Yes, Heated Rivalry

It’s an early Sunday morning and we’re smack dab in the middle of the Winter Olympics. The streets are eerily quiet. No, not even the eyes of the world bearing down on the northern metropolis are enough to disrupt the Italian way of life here, where Sundays are groggier affairs compared to the rest of the espresso-fueled week. Even the city’s trademark Duomo and its surrounding square, typically a bustling tourist mecca, is totally empty.

Inside the store however, I’m shopping with Kenworthy and a gaggle of lucky fans as part of a unique Airbnb experience timed to the games. Sure, the company is known for tours of neighborhoods with the ordinary locals (or in places like Italy, pasta-making classes with jovial Nonnas, for example.) But during the Games, the rental company managed to recruit star Olympians for quirky and unique activities, like eating waffles with the snowboarder Chloe Kim, or this shopping trip hang with Kenworthy.

Kenworthy first shot to fame in 2014 when he won America a shiny silver medal in Men’s Slopestyle for the Sochi Games. These days, the Olympian is competing for Great Britain (to honor his English-born mother.) He actually “retired” from the sport in 2022, but it was only last May when he decided at the last minute to join, and later qualify, for the British team. But his competition isn’t for a couple of days. In the meantime, he’s buying swag along with the rest of us.I jokingly ask if he can find the size of my jersey, which elicits an earnest response as he’s almost about to help me. “I’m kidding,” I interrupt.

Once we leave the pop-up store, we pass a line of hundreds of people now waiting to get inside; they’re the first sign of life on the city streets. We walk with Kenworthy in front of the gargantuan Duomo and approach the equally spectacular Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II next door, a 1800-era arcade topped with a massive glass atrium. “And now, this is where Dua Lipa filmed her instantly-iconic NBC commercial,” Kenworthy, now a de-facto tour guide, cracks of the ad. Inside the Galleria, a few of us, including Kenworthy, take a good-luck spin around a mosaic of a bull's testicles on the floor; a Milanese tradition. (Honorary Italian George Clooney also took a twirl around it with wife Amal the day before.)

Trotting with Kenworthy down Milan’s streets is a unique experience on a personal level, considering I vividly remember when he came out of the closet on the cover of ESPN Magazine in October 2015, a year after his Sochi win. Aside from medaling, he only previously made headlines for rescuing dogs from a Korean puppy mill. With no peers in his sport at the time also out of the closet (and few-to-none out in sports in general), Kenworthy became one of the very first active American athletes to speak his truth, shortly after the college football player Michael Sam. “I guess I should start by saying, 'I'm gay,’” the article began.

At the time, I had just come out myself, and I remember giving that article to friends on a similar journey as a handbook on how to handle the complicated process. I tell this to nobody in particular in our group. It turns out the guy I turn to is Kenworthy’s longtime agent, Michael Spencer. “I’m actually quoted in that article,” he tells me. “I remember the first time he confided in me he was gay before that came out.” Much like my own association with the announcement (here was someone from an extremely masculine world owning his truth) Spencer said the stories came out of the woodwork after that article in the world of extreme sports and otherwise. “I remember being in the mountains in Colorado (where Kenworthy is from), walking down the street and seeing the front page of a local paper. The headline said, ‘I am Gus’ written by someone who was long closeted and said he felt comfortable to speak up after that.”

Eventually, we wind up at Casa Airbnb, a sprawling event space where the company made their temporary headquarters for both employees and locals to hang out. Naturally, it’s decked-out with a barista stand handing out buttery croissants and cups of strong local coffee, along with plenty of couches and TVs to take in the action. Outside there’s shuffleboard and various photo-ops, including a ski lift.

I soon tell Kenworthy himself about how I related to his ESPN proclamation, now over a decade ago. “Well, thank you. I mean, I really appreciate that,” he says, getting emotional at the thought. “I do hear these stories all of the time and it means the world to me. Obviously, it’s personal and I wanted to do it for myself as I was feeling so tortured and tormented. But I know that someone else was feeling these things out there too. If it helped one other person, then like it'll have been worth it to do it publicly in that way.” However, he adds a caveat. “I have to remind myself of the sweet things you said, because also our community can kind of be vicious.”

Kenworthy is referring to a recent interview he gave to The New Yorker as it relates to Heated Rivalry; a phenomenon that no doubt can be connected to his own story. “They asked me about the show and I answered that there were so many parallels to it and my real life, and how crazy it was watching it. But the comments were so savage, like I was campaigning to be on the show or I was doing anything to stay relevant and riding on its coattails. Like, my God, I literally answered a question about it.”

It should be noted that Kenworthy also made headlines when, after our interview, when he seemingly peed FUCK ICE into the snow following the unrest in Minneapolis and posted it on social media. He said he’s since received death threats. “Maybe that’s the price you pay for speaking up and using your platform,” he said on Instagram at the time. “I think it’s important to say what we feel and stand up for what we believe in. And stand up to injustice.”

Then again, from Kenworthy’s perch, he’s damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t. “I had my feelings hurt and it sucks,” he said, referring to the Heated Rivalry kerfuffle. “Sometimes it just feels like you can't win. When it comes to the gay community at least, I feel like we're the first to lift each other up and celebrate each other, but also the first to cut each other down. I feel recently I've had some of that cutting-down, and it's hard not to let it get to you.”

But no matter what anybody says, when you’re in the public eye it seems you get criticized to the point where if you say something universally agreeable, it’s seen as pandering. But aside from the inevitable criticism, let it be known that I did prod his opinion on the cultural phenomenon powered by breakout stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. What did he think while he was watching the series from his unique view? “Well, the first two episodes were raunchy,” he says. “It was like, ‘Is this hard for a straight person to watch?’ But I love that they did that, and I think the storylines are beautiful. They felt so real. It’s just exciting that it exists and I feel like that show is going to change so many people's lives and perceptions”

Horny hockey shows notwithstanding, Kenworthy does have bigger hills to ski while he’s in Europe. While he’s in Milan at press time, he’s actually heading to Switzerland to practice before his competitions start February 19 — athletes aren’t able to train where they’ll be competing. I ask what changed for him last May after he made the decision to compete again, at least when it came to his diet. Is it all chicken breast and sweet potato these days? “Well, it’s the worst it’s ever been right now, actually. I’m eating nonstop, and my schedule’s been erratic. But no, nothing's really changed.”

When it came to the decision to compete into his fourth games, Great Britain offered their full sport, sans money. So, he’s essentially financing the quest for another medal himself. “When I was on the sideline when I was first thinking about it, it was like, ‘Do I wanna spend all of this money and burn through my savings to have one more Olympic push?’ I was almost tortured by the decision. But then I thought that money comes and goes, but this opportunity isn’t going to come again.”

Photos courtesy of Airbnb, Rob LeDonne