RIO DE JANEIRO — Gus Kenworthy was ready to tell the world he was gay. The freestyle skier had his coming-out story planned in his head before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
He understood the gravity of the situation. Through weeks of soul-searching he had concluded the stage was perfect. Russia was attracting global attention for introducing legislation that purported to criminalize homosexual activity on the spurious grounds that it corrupted the minds of children. What better place to make a stand?
“Then,” Kenworthy tells USA TODAY Sports. “I ended up not doing it.”
Kenworthy captured the hearts of the Olympic television audience in Sochi, winning a silver medal and then adopting a pair of adorable stray dogs.