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Gus Kenworthy: Broken Thumb Means I Won't Have to Shake Pence's Hand
Gus Kenworthy: Broken Thumb Means I Won't Have to Shake Pence's Hand
The out Olympic freeskier says the injury won't keep him from competing.
Gus Kenworthy has broken a thumb, an injury that he says won't keep him from competing but will give him an excuse not to shake hands with Vice President Mike Pence.
The Olympic freestyle skier sent out this tweet today:
\u201cBroke my thumb yesterday in practice. It won't stop me from competing (obvi) but it does prevent me from shaking Pence's hand so... Silver linings! Will be giving my teammates (and literally everyone else) an enthusiastic "thumbs up!" of encouragement the rest of the trip.\u201d— Gus Kenworthy (@Gus Kenworthy) 1518737479
Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon, the only out gay men on the U.S. team, have both been highly critical of the anti-LGBT vice president, who is leading the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and of Donald Trump. Both have said they won't go to the White House for the traditional post-Olympics reception.
"When we have people elected into office that believe in conversion therapy and are trying to strip trans rights in the military and do these things that are directly attacking the LGBT community, I have no patience," he told CBS This Morning interviewer Don Dahler in a segment broadcast today.
And last week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Kenworthy said, "To have somebody leading the delegation that's directly attacked the LGBT community -- and just a cabinet in general that just sort of stands against us and has tried to do things to set us back -- it just seems like a bad fit. The Olympics is all about inclusion and people coming together, and it seems like it's not really doing that."
The injury does mean Kenworthy will probably ski without poles, and "could be a factor in how he grabs his skis on tricks, a required part of his run that affects the overall style he will be judged on," USA Today reports.
Kenworthy, a silver medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, came out to ESPN's magazine the following year. Read an Advocate interview with him here.
