Augustus Richard "Gus" Kenworthy (born October 1, 1991) is a British-born American freestyle skier from Telluride, Colorado, a triple threat, who competes in slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. Kenworthy won the silver medal in Men's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Kenworthy again represented the United States in slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, where he qualified for the final and finished in 12th place.
Video Gus Kenworthy
Early life and education
Kenworthy is the youngest of three sons of an English mother, Pip Tyler, and an American father, Peter Kenworthy. He has two older brothers, Hugh and Nick Kenworthy.
Kenworthy's father has been the executive director of the Mountainfilm film festival in Telluride since 2006. He is a former banker from Philadelphia, who worked in London (UK) for several years. Kenworthy's mother is originally from Bristol, England. She was born into a large family, with eight siblings. After moving to London in the early 1970s, she began working backstage in costumes, at the Kings Head Theatre Club. She also ran a vintage booth at the Camden Lock Market. She emigrated with her then husband, Peter, and her sons, including then two-year-old Gus, to Telluride, in 1993.
Kenworthy graduated from Telluride High School in June 2010. He could have graduated in 2009, but decided instead to take a year off to ski.
Maps Gus Kenworthy
Career
Kenworthy won AFP World Championships overall titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2014, he placed second at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia and won his first medal, a bronze, at the X Games in Tignes, France in the slopestyle event.
He won the World Cup Men's Halfpipe in Park City, Utah, in 2015 and again in 2016 in Mammoth, California, and finished second in 2017. He finished third in the Men's Slopestyle during the 2017 World Cup in Silvaplana, Switzerland.
Personal life
In October 2015, Kenworthy publicly came out as gay in an interview with ESPN. He said in a later interview with Attitude magazine that he picked to come out in ESPN because "I wanted to do it in my words and once and for all - and hopefully help kids that are in the same position I was." Rolling Stone noted the "freestyle medalist is the first action-sports star to come out."
He was in a relationship with Robin Macdonald who was also involved in the ski industry, working in film and photography. The couple gained international media attention as a result of Macdonald, texting him a photo of five stray dogs--four puppies and their mother--during their stay in Sochi, at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Kenworthy stayed behind for more than a month to save the family of dogs, and others, while he fought to bring them back home. Their adoption of these dogs helped bring further attention to the problematic rise of the stray dog population in Sochi, which grew significantly during the Olympics. The two eventually broke up after a five-year relationship.
Since November 2015, he has been in a relationship with American theatre and film actor and reality television personality Matthew Wilkas. Wilkas had a lead role in the 2012 film Gayby. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wilkas kissed Kenworthy before his qualifying run in the men's slopestyle; the kiss was broadcast on live television and was lauded as being a significant moment in visibility of LGBT+ athletes.
In 2017, Kenworthy was a cast member on the MTV series The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, which featured former competitors as well as professional athletes.. In 2018, Gus Kenworthy was featured on the Head & Shoulders campaign, "Shoulders of Greatness"
References
External links
- Team USA profile for Gus Kenworthy
- Gus Kenworthy on IMDb
- Official website
- Gus Kenworthy on YouTube Channel
Source of article : Wikipedia
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