Gus Kenworthy: I want to win a gold for GB and spread the LGBTQ message too

Gus Kenworthy has set his sights on winning Britain’s first-ever gold medal on snow at the Winter Olympics for his British mother.

And the 28-year-old believes his change of allegiance from the United States gives him the best chance of upgrading a previous Olympic silver to the top step of the podium.

“I think this will be my last Olympic Games,” he said of Beijing 2022. “I want to do it for my mum. I’m so excited to represent my mum, her heritage and where I was born, and bring back a medal for her, hopefully, a gold.”

The Chelmsford-born skier, who’s move to compete for Britain was first mooted five years ago, insists the change is not monumental, joking: “I already know I look good in red, white and blue!”

But formal negotiations have been ongoing for over a year, since Kenworthy’s agent made an official approach to GB Snowsport, the athlete’s body increasingly struggling to deal with the American qualification system for the last Games.

“In the US, it’s so incredibly stacked and the qualifying process goes right up until the Games so, going into 2018, I had a haematoma, my knee was jacked up and I was competing back to back days just to qualify,” he said.

“I wasn’t enjoying that process and it was taking a toll on my body. So, I know I’m good enough and still have enough in the tank, but this allows me to go for three disciplines [slopestyle, big air and halfpipe] but on my terms and in better shape.

"Plus, I’d lost a bit of the love, as I was dealing with injuries, and this move has reignited that lost love.

“I feared people would see it as a cop-out, but no one’s seen it that way. I’ve made it to the Games twice for the US, I’ve medalled, I feel quite confident that I could make it to the Games again for any country, but I want to do it for my mum and for GB.”

Kenworthy has become a figure who transcends his sport, from the international coverage of rescuing stray dogs set to be euthanised at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 to coming out as gay the following year, with a cover interview for ESPN.

And aside from bidding for Olympic gold, spreading the LGBTQ message is his other main goal in Britain.

“I could have gradually told people I was gay and it come out on the grapevine, but I wanted to do it in a public way, as I can’t be the only one in action sports,” he said.

“Also, I’m from a small town and I’m sure there are countless people in small towns that think they don’t fit in, as there’s no one else like them.

"I wanted to come out and, hopefully, find some of those people and help some of them.

“When I came out, I was quite nervous I’d lose sponsors and social media followers. I remember I even took a screen grab of my Instagram followers, thinking, ‘I’ll never have that many followers again’, but it was the opposite reaction and it’s opened a lot of doors for me, rather than closed them.

“But there’s so much that needs to be done.

"In the US, there are still 43 states where you can get fired for being gay, there are people not getting housing legally as they’re gay, there’s a big LGBTQ homeless community, as some get kicked out of home when they come out, or black trans women in the US getting murdered.

“The visibility of having gay athletes out and proud at an Olympics does a lot for younger LGBTQ people to see a reflection of themselves and it normalises it for the wider people. But people need to see more of it.”