Gus Kenworthy wants to ski and be heard.
Fresh off the PyeongChang Games in South Korea, the 26-year-old freeskier, a vocal critic of vice president Mike Pence, spoke of the importance of athletes utilizing their platform for the greater good.
“It’s important and I think, like LeBron [James] tweeted the other day in response to a reporter, ‘No, I won’t shut up and dribble,’ and I think that’s important. We’re not puppets,” Kenworthy told The Post on Thursday at the Ralph Lauren Prince Street store in Soho, referencing James’ reply to Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s “shut up and dribble” remarks in February.
“We’re not here to do our sport and keep our mouths shut and go through life with our head down,” he continued. “We’re people and citizens and legislature, laws, prejudice, all of those things affect us the same way they do other people, and I think it’s important we have a platform to speak up for people whose voices won’t be heard because they’re not as amplified.”
Kenworthy, who came out in 2015, previously chastised Pence for leading the nation’s delegations in South Korea based on his views of the LGBT community. And while he left South Korea without a medal, he isn’t going home empty-handed, as the Colorado-bred athlete rescued a pup from a Korean dog meat farm that is in the process of being shut down, as well as a new friendship with figure skater Adam Rippon.
“We were following each other before the trip, texting and chatting during our qualification process, wishing each other luck and then we actually got to meet IRL [in real life] at the opening ceremony,” Kenworthy said. “We were both saying we felt like we had been friends forever, just texted the whole time we were there and laughed about stuff that was happening during the games, and then flew back, made people move their seats so we can sit next to each other, chatted the whole 14-hour flight.”
Though the fast friends are getting together soon, Kenworthy remains uncertain about his Olympic future.
“I was originally thinking definitely not, this is probably it for me for Olympics, but then I had such a good time qualifying for the team this year, and doing all the competitions, and I had such a fun time in South Korea, and I didn’t do well. I was kind of hurt and didn’t perform the way I wanted to, that it all kind of culminated in me feeling like I want to go back, but I haven’t officially decided that that’s the goal,” he said.
Kenworthy broke his thumb during practice, but found the silver lining — he didn’t have to shake Pence’s hand.