Quotes from Gus Kenworthy

When you're able to be honest with yourself about who you are and finally can present your authentic true self to the world, you feel so much better about yourself, and it makes it easier for everyone else to feel better about you.

I always felt like I had something to prove, like I had to work twice as hard to make sure I got it. I knew I didn't want to be a good skier. I wanted to be the best.

The chance of messing up and falling significantly increases when you're flipping through the air three times while spinning and trying to grab your skis.

Figure skating, especially the longer performances, are such a feat. It requires so much stamina and is so beautiful.

I think the Olympics are a time for the world to come together and put aside differences, but we're also coming to represent ourselves, our communities, and our countries, so I think it's important to stand up and be a voice.

You can be gay and be proud of that and not have to worry about being unsuccessful or unaccepted.

Having an Olympic medal validates that you can be a successful freeskier... It's like a credential that sticks with you the rest of your life.

The Olympics is all about inclusion, coming together for sport. That's the footprint I want to leave.

I always have at least one book with me. I try and read a book a month.

When I was in the closet, I had so much pressure on my shoulders. When I came out, that was actually the first moment I felt relieved of those stresses. It really showed in my skiing.

I was so stressed in the closet. In an interview, I was scared they were going to ask me about a crush, or the type of girl I liked, or whatever it was. And I was going to have to lie by omission. It was always in the back of my mind.

My family's dog, when I was growing up, was an adopted dog that I got in a shelter for my birthday. I've always felt really strongly about adopting animals and trying to save animals' lives.

Growing up, I always wanted kids, and that was one of the things that made it hard for me to accept being gay, but now I know it's totally an option to have kids.

I've always been someone who's had to compartmentalize my life because I was in the closet, and I was in fear of outing myself. I always had so much going on in my mind and couldn't share it with anyone, so I actually feel like, now that I'm out, I have less to compartmentalize.

I don't think that one thing defines me, but I know that by coming out the way that I did, sort of almost pioneering it in action sports - to take that stand - that it's always going to be a label that is stuck with me, and I know that I'll always be the 'gay skier,' and it actually doesn't bother me.

If people are hiding their sexuality, they don't really get their full selves, so you can sometimes feel like you're presenting sort of like a fogged version of yourself.

I have the LGBT audience behind me, and there's all these people that I want to make proud, and I want to do well aside from just myself.

One of the most exciting and unique parts of slopestyle is that every course is unique. You don't really know what to expect when you show up at an event, and it's always fun trying to put a run together.

I think it's so important to have visibility and to break down stereotypes and stigmas and everything that people are so attached to.

Getting to be authentic is so liberating.

Someone coming out as gay shouldn't be newsworthy; it shouldn't be warranting a magazine cover or anything like that, which I had as my story for coming out.