Out skier Gus Kenworthy said in a
recent interview with the AP that he receives messages from people
wishing he gets hurt.
The 26-year-old Kenworthy is one of two
openly gay men on Team USA competing at the Winter Olympics in South Korea. The
other athlete is figure skater Adam Rippon, 28.
Earlier this week, Kenworthy took a
swipe at Vice President Mike Pence in an Instagram post with Rippon
from Pyeongchang.
(Related: Gus
Kenworthy, Adam Rippon to Mike Pence: “Eat your heart out.”)
Kenworthy said response to that post
and others from Winter Olympics drew “the most negative responses
that I've ever gotten.” He added that he's gotten messages from
“people wishing me to fall during my runs, wishing me to get hurt,
what it is.”
“It's hard. It's hard to read those.
But I think you just have to take it with a grain of salt,” he
said.
Kenworthy added that he's embracing his
role as LGBT flag-bearer in Pyeongchang.
“Myself being out, Adam being out,
all these athletes that are finally out for the first time, I think
it just shows a shift and a change and hopefully it means that in the
future it won’t be a big thing,” Kenworthy said. “It won’t
be a headline. It won’t be ‘the gay Olympian, the gay skier, the
gay anything.' It will just be ‘a skier.'”