Latest news with #GusKenworthy
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gus Kenworthy comes out… of retirement! Eyeing 2026 Olympics
Olympic athlete Gus Kenworthy is dusting off the skis and heading for the slopes after announcing he's coming out of retirement. In a new interview, the 33-year-old freestyle skier told ESPN that he started training again and hopes to compete at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Sign up for the Out Newsletter to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment — delivered three times a week straight (well…) to your inbox! Kenworthy said, "After taking a step away, I realized I miss skiing, and I really want to compete again. I didn't know if I would be able to come back after three-and-a-half years, but I knew I wouldn't be able to after seven and a half. So, it's this Olympics or nothing. I'm never going to have this opportunity again." Advertisement Though Kenworthy considered coming out of retirement before, he suffered two major concussions and contracted COVID-19 that put him through extensive recovery time and prompted an overall hiatus from skiing. Kenworthy revealed that, at the time, he experienced a bit of an identity crisis. Eyeing the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, Kenworthy believes that this is the right time to get back on the slopes. "I don't feel like I'm going back into it because I don't know who I am otherwise," Kenworthy said. "I'm going back into it because I can still do it, and because I want to." Advertisement Given that Kenworthy was born in the UK and moved to Colorado when he was two years old, he will be representing Great Britain again at the 2026 Olympics. The athlete, actor, model, and social media influencer announced his retirement from sports after a crash during the men's final. "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," Kenworthy told at the time. The athlete also told BBC Sport: "I know that there's an expiration date, and I'm at that date." Kenworthy, one of the first out gay athletes to become a household name, took home the Slopestyle silver medal with Team USA in 2014 (and came out as gay the following year). Then, in 2018, he was one of two out gay men to represent the USA at the PyeongChang Olympics.
NBC Sports
12-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Gus Kenworthy eyes comeback for fourth Olympics
Gus Kenworthy eyes a fourth Olympics in freeskiing, planning to return to competition next season for the first time since the 2022 Beijing Games, his agent confirmed. 'After taking a step away, I realized I miss skiing and I really want to compete again,' the 33-year-old Kenworthy said, according to 'I didn't know if I would be able to come back after three-and-a-half years, but I knew I wouldn't be able to after seven and a half. So, it's this Olympics or nothing. I'm never going to have this opportunity again.' Kenworthy was part of a U.S. podium sweep in the Olympic debut of men's ski slopestyle in 2014, taking silver. After coming out in 2015, he placed 12th at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. He then switched representation to Great Britain (he was born in England) for the 2022 Olympics, where he was eighth in the halfpipe in what he said would be his last competition. Kenworthy dealt with a concussion and COVID-19 in the lead-up to the Beijing Games. 'My whole goal in China was to land the run I had been training as best as I could, and I didn't do that,' Kenworthy said, according to ESPN. 'I had already announced that it was going to be my last contest. I was ready to be done, and I walked away with my head held high. But it wasn't what I wanted. It was hard to walk away on a sour note.' Last week, video of Kenworthy taking a ski halfpipe run was posted on his social media. 'Took 3.5 years off. This is 3.5 days back. What do you think? Shall we go for it?! 😏,' the caption read. The world's current top men's halfpipe skiers include Americans Alex Ferreira, a silver and bronze medalist at the last two Olympics, and Nick Goepper, who shared the 2014 Olympic slopestyle podium with Kenworthy. 'I want to medal (in Italy). I don't know how else to say it,' Kenworthy said, according to ESPN. 'I don't want to say that's what success looks like because then I'm setting myself up for the possibility of this experience not to feel successful. But that is my dream. If I qualify for the Games and make it back to the Olympics and land my run, that will feel like success. That's what I didn't get in Beijing.' Nick Zaccardi,
