Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy joined Conan O’Brien last night and talked about his coming out story.
Kenworthy said it was difficult for him because he was in a small class of kids at school (48) and turned pro at 16, so there were challenges because he was afraid of “separation from the pack.”
“I had a hard time with that.”
But he said he’s known he is gay forever and said he thought about coming out in a very dramatic way at Sochi:
“Leading into the Russian Olympics there was all this anti-LGBT legislature and they had warned people about… if you’re gay…or if any of the athletes are gay, like, try not to show it because it’s very unsafe, it’s not accepted. And I was like, that’s bulls–t! I wasn’t even out. But I was like, that’s ridiculous.”
He added:
“I had a boyfriend at the time and had kind of talked about landing the best run ever and winning an Olympic gold medal and kissing him at the bottom and… That would be my way of telling everyone. But it didn’t happen, and I’m glad it didn’t because I hadn’t told my mom, my dad, my brothers. It would have not only been a shock to the sport and to the Olympics, but my family would have been like, what the hell?”
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