Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
While recently chatting with PEOPLE about partnering withMasters, a new app that lets users train with some of the world’s most accomplished athletes, the 30-year-old freestyle skier also opens up about progress that has been made for the queer community in sports.
Noting that he does feel as though “there is more that needs to be done” in creating an equal playing field for LGBTQ+ athletes, Kenworthy tells PEOPLE exclusively, “I think that there’s been tremendous strides.”
“In 2018,Adam Ripponand I were the first two openly gay men to compete for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics, which is crazy because it doesn’t seem like that long ago. But no one had competed out at a Winter Olympics from the U.S., and the U.S. sends so many athletes,” he continues. “So that was kind of shocking to me.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Noam Galai/Getty
Want to get the biggest stories fromPEOPLEevery weekday?Subscribe to our new podcast,PEOPLE Every Day,to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.
Progress Pride flag.ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty
RELATED VIDEO: Skier Gus Kenworthy Is Ready for His “Swan Song” at the Beijing Winter Olympics
Back in October 2015, Kenworthy publicly came out as gay in aninterview with ESPN. In a later interview withAttitudemagazine, the athlete said that he chose to come out through 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.”
Now, Kenworthy tells PEOPLE that having so many out athletes competing is monumental. “I think it is just a really exciting thing for the sports world, and also for the queer community and for kids in sports watching because it gives them kind of a figurehead,” he says.
“It gives them someone to look at and be like, ‘Oh, that person is like me.’ Or, ‘Oh, maybe sports are for me,’ because I think a lot of people are turned away from sports because it is so heteronormative,” Kenworthy continues. “Sometimes it just feels like you don’t fit in, and people end up leaving sports because of that.”
“So I think it’s exciting to see more and more queer representation on the world stage. And I think it will make it easier for future athletes,” adds theAmerican Horror Storystar.
Still, Kenworthy — who is aiming to compete for Team Great Britain in Beijing — acknowledges that despite all the progress, the struggle and fight for acceptance remains far from over for the LGBTQ+ commmunity.
“I think it’s amazing, but I also don’t think that we’re 100% there. I don’t think that the world’s 100% accepting,” he explains. “And I think that as more athletes come out, we have to continue to celebrate them and lift them up.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org.Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning Feb 3, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.
source: people.com
