Kenworthy was born in Chelmsford, Essex to an English mother, Heather "Pip" Tyler, and an American father, Peter Kenworthy.[4][5] He has two older brothers, Hugh and Nick Kenworthy.[6]
In 1993 when Gus Kenworthy was two years old, the family emigrated and settled in Telluride.[5]
Kenworthy graduated from Telluride High School in June 2010.[6] He could have graduated in 2009 but chose instead to take a year off to ski.[7]
Skiing career
Kenworthy won AFP World Championships overall titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013.[8][9][10][11] In 2014, he placed second at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia and won his first medal, a bronze, at the X Games in Tignes, France in the slopestyle event.[12] He won the World Cup Men's Halfpipe in Park City, Utah,[13] in 2015 and again in 2016 in Mammoth, California, and finished second in 2017.[14][15] He finished third in the Men's Slopestyle during the 2017 World Cup in Silvaplana, Switzerland.[16]
In December 2019, he announced he would compete for his birth nation, Great Britain.[17] In February 2020, he won his first gold medal as a competitor for Great Britain.[18] In January 2022, he made his final X Games competition competing in the Superpipe final. He finished his X Games career having made 32 appearances in the event.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Kenworthy competed for the last time.[19][20][21] He qualified for the final in 12th and finished 8th in the final.
Media appearances
In 2019, Kenworthy guest starred on RuPaul's Drag Race, All Stars 4, Episode 3, "Snatch Game of Love", as one of the available bachelors. Kenworthy joined the main cast in the ninth season of FX's anthology series American Horror Story as Chet Clancy.[17][22]
In October 2015, Kenworthy publicly came out as gay in an interview with ESPN.[25][26][27]Rolling Stone noted the "freestyle medalist is the first action-sports star to come out."[28][29] He was in a relationship with Robin Macdonald, who was also involved in the ski industry, working in film and photography.[30][31] The couple gained international media attention for their involvement with the issue of stray dogs in Sochi at the 2014 Winter Olympics.[32][33]
Kenworthy said he did not believe that boycotting the 2022 Olympics in China would solve any international human rights situations, and while in China, he spoke out against "human rights atrocities".[42][43]
In 2022, it was revealed that Kenworthy had been dating Creative Artists Agency executive Adam Umhoefer for two years.[44]
Advocacy and charity activities
In 2018, he was chosen by Fierté Montréal as one of the six grand marshals for the Pride Parade.[45] He announced his participation in AIDS/LifeCycle in 2019, aiming to raise $1 million to fight HIV/AIDS.[46][47] He joined approximately 2,000 other cyclists on a 7-day, 545-mile cycling trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He raised a total of $249,745.[48][49]
