Skiers' bromance resumes following Gus Kenworthy's coming out - Australia Gay News Network

The bromance between freestyle skiers Gus Kenworthy and Alex Schlopy is back on, the air clearing after Schlopy made some bitchy comments on Instagram last week about the way Kenworthy came out as gay in October. Schlopy posted on Instagram: “I've been waiting a minute to try and word this properly. I've been boys with @guskenworthy since we were very young. So... Here it is- I'm very proud of you for coming out and being you, it must be a huge weight off your shoulders my dude. Not gonna lie, we all knew... Kind of haha. Doesn't matter. You're my boy either way. However, I do not like how you used your coming out to build yourself up even more. I know it must have been tough and we all fight our own battles... Hopefully you use this to do something good for the sport and other people. That being said you're a fucking nasty shredder and I have mad respect for you- gay or not. Shred life and support to the LGBT community. Love you my dude.”

Freestyle skier Alex Schlopy.

The implication that Kenworthy’s public coming out was a selfish move to garner publicity irked Kenworthy, who responded in an interview with Attitude magazine:

“[schlopy's comments] really bummed me out because that’s someone I’ve known for a number of years, and someone I compete against, and if he did feel these things, I felt like voicing it on a public forum like Instagram is just a little bit rude. I’d rather he’d just reached out to me.”

Schlopy now says he is best friends with Kenworthy, who is “a brother for life”. “I do stand by my feelings that Gus at first was looking for more publicity for himself, rather than intending to help the LGBT community as a whole. I want him to prove me wrong. I hope he uses his coming out to help the LGBT community and raise awareness. A lot of people think I wrote the post out of jealousy of his fame, but I’m nothing but happy for Gus. I have always been a person to accept people for who they are.”

image top: Gus Kenworthy.

Author Andrew Shaw