Although the US skier, Gus Kenworthy, didn’t do as well as he would of liked on Saturday’s men’s ski slopestyle final he still came away filled with pride as the kiss he shared with his boyfriend was broadcasted on NBC, a show of affection he said he would of never had seen at the Olympics on TV when he was younger. Furthermore, the athlete competed during the Sochi games four years ago and won a silver medal, although at this point he had not yet made his sexuality public, so when deciding if he should kiss his boyfriend at the bottom of the slope he ultimately decided against it.
Specifically, Kenworthy had this to say about the experience:“I think that the most important thing in the world is for everybody to live their life as themselves, and be authentic and honest. I didn’t really get to experience that in Sochi, so it feels good to have that here.”
Going on to state that: “I didn’t even know that that was a televised moment at all, but I think that’s amazing. Something that I wanted at the last Olympics was to share a kiss with my boyfriend at the bottom, and it was something that I was too scared to do for myself. And so to be able to do that, to give him a kiss, to have that affection broadcasted to the world is incredible.”
Furthermore, Gus had a few more things to say about the whole situation:
“[I] Didn’t realize this moment was being filmed yesterday but I’m so happy that it was. My childhood self would never have dreamed of seeing a gay kiss on TV at the Olympics but for the first time ever a kid watching at home CAN! Love is love is love.”
“I think that the only way to really change perceptions, break down homophobia, break down barriers is through representation. That’s definitely not something I had as a kid. I definitely didn’t see a gay athlete at the Olympics kissing their boyfriend and I think that if I had it would have made it a lot easier for me, so hopefully, it did that for other people.”
But it wasn’t just Gus that was proud, many of the viewers found positivity in what they saw, many of them taking to Twitter…
