{"id":430687,"date":"2026-01-26T11:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430687\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:07:11","slug":"olympian-gus-kenworthy-says-he-was-so-moved-by-heated-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430687\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympian Gus Kenworthy Says He Was ‘So Moved’ By ‘Heated Rivalry’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBritish American Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy<\/a>, who made history as the first openly gay extreme sports competitor when he came out in 2015<\/a>, said he was \u201cso moved\u201d by Heated Rivalry<\/a>\u2018s depiction of closeted queer athletes.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an extensive Q&A with The New Yorker<\/a> ahead of his fourth Olympic games in Milan, Kenworthy noted the parallels between the runaway Crave<\/a> Canada hit and his life, as both a private individual and public-facing athlete. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt first, I didn\u2019t understand the big deal. It was fun to watch, but it was sort of smut. I honestly thought, \u2018All these thirsty gays! Y\u2019all are just horny.\u2019 Like, you could watch porn? People kept telling me, \u2018Just wait \u2014 it tugs on the heartstrings.\u2019 And then it did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tParticularly, Kenworthy \u2014 who has also forayed into acting in recent years with appearances in American Horror Story and 80 for Brady \u2014 felt represented by Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud\u2019s standalone episode \u201cHunter,\u201d which focuses on the clandestine romance between another pro hockey player and a smoothie bar barista Kip (Robbie G.K.).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe third episode changed things for me,\u201d Kenworthy, who won the silver medal in men\u2019s slopestyle at the Sochi games, recalled. \u201cI actually wrote a message to the show\u2019s creator [Jacob Tierney<\/a>] because I was so moved, and didn\u2019t expect to be. And I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen myself reflected onscreen like that, in such a substantial way. The parallels are kind of insane. I also had a secret relationship with these clandestine meetings and hookups. And Miley Cyrus was my own Rose [Sophie N\u00e9lisse\u2019s movie star character in the show, who has a brief but public relationship with Hudson Williams<\/a>\u2018 Shane Hollander], this famous person that I was suddenly linked to, and as much as I kind of wanted it \u2014 because that\u2019s the person you would want to be with if you\u2019re straight, someone successful and beautiful and talented \u2014 it\u2019s not the same as when you\u2019re with a guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd then the Scott Hunter character \u2014 I really related to him. He wanted to be out, but really, just truly felt like he couldn\u2019t be, because of his circumstances. That was me for so many years. I had the same yearning \u2014 to be in love, to be public, and to not have to hide,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n\tKenworthy, who will be staging a comeback in Milan as part of Team GB, also joked he was available to appear in Season 2. \u201cYou know, I played hockey through high school. I can skate, and I know how to handle a stick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sleeper hit, which streams in the U.S. on HBO Max<\/a>, has gone global since its premiere late November, catapulting its main stars Williams and Connor Storrie<\/a> to overnight celebrity (just this morning, the duo carried the Olympic torch in Italy<\/a>) and sparking important conversations about hegemonic masculinity in elite sports. Williams has spoken about being sent \u201clovely anonymous emails\u201d<\/a> from closeted pro athletes competing across hockey, football and basketball, while some out athletes have touted publicly what the show means to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British American Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, who made history as the first openly gay extreme sports competitor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[162091,162092,88,172849,204433,1010,162094,162095,162096,1082],"class_list":{"0":"post-430687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-connor-storrie","9":"tag-crave","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-francois-arnaud","12":"tag-gus-kenworthy","13":"tag-hbo-max","14":"tag-heated-rivalry","15":"tag-hudson-williams","16":"tag-jacob-tierney","17":"tag-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}