Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon Make the Cutest Friend-Couple
“We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it,” Team USA Olympian, Gus Kenworthy, tweeted on February 9 from the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Anyone following this year’s Winter Olympics has no doubt heard of the first two openly gay U.S. athletes–Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy–and their impossibly cute bromance. Both Olympian’s have acquired massive followings on social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter and are un-shamefully promoting LGBTQ rights, their friendship, and self-love.
Colorado skier Gus Kenworthy is making his second appearance at the Winter Olympics at 26 years old, the first being in Sochi, Russia in 2014. Unable to out his sexuality during the first competition out of fear of losing his career, he remained quiet. However, he ended up leaving Sochi with a silver medal in the Men’s Freestyle Skiing event. A year later in 2015, after leaving Sochi, he openly came out in an interview with ESPN.
Now, four years later after his first Olympic debut he gets his chance to compete – as an unapologetically queer man.
His teammate, Adam Rippon, otherwise known as “America’s sweetheart,” is making his first entrance into the Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang. The figure skater from Scranton, Pennsylvania successfully secured a bronze model for the figure skating team event at this year’s competition. Other than completely slaying on the ice, Rippon has become well-known for criticizing Mike Pence and his uncommonly perfect eyebrows.
The two athletes have posted a series of pictures together since their post from the Opening Ceremony. Kenworthy shared a photo of the two after Rippon won bronze for the team skating event on Feb. 11, captioned, “I’m a proud dad, today” and accompanied with a series of rainbow hearts.
Similarly, Rippon shared the exact same photo on Instagram prior to Kenworthy’s competition in his slopestyle event on Feb. 18, saying “Cheering on our Olympic Angel today. Get it, G!!!” Besides sharing supporting photos of one another, the men are happy with their ability to be their authentic selves at this year’s Olympics–especially Kenworthy, who wasn’t four years ago.
The queer visibility that has been highlighted so far in Pyeongchang is unparalleled from past Olympics. Male sports and athletes alike continuously project images of strength–only understood in terms of heterosexual masculinity. For Team USA, Rippon and Kenworthy are redefining the “All American Boy” stereotype and making queer audiences proud.
Rippon said it best: “To all those who tweet at me saying that they ‘hope I fail,’ I have failed many times in my life. But more importantly, I’ve learned from every setback, proudly owned up to my mistakes, grown from disappointments, and now I’m a glamazon bitch ready for the runway.”
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