Gus Kenworthy, Matt Wilkas Share Kiss On Live Olympic TV
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | February 18, 2018
Out skier Gus Kenworthy shared a kiss with his boyfriend Matt Wilkas on Sunday before a qualifying run at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The kiss was broadcast live by NBC.
Wilkas, an actor (Gayby), told TIME that it was “good” that it was on television because “it normalizes it more.”
“I would imagine it would be a huge moment for a young gay kid to see an awesome athlete so open and proud of himself and not caring what anyone thinks of his sexuality,” Wilkas said.
Kenworthy came out in an ESPN The Magazine cover story shortly after he won a silver medal in slopestyle skiing at the Sochi Olympics. In South Korea, he's one of two openly gay athletes on Team USA. The other athlete is figure skater Adam Rippon.
“That's something that I wanted at the last Olympics, to share a kiss with my boyfriend at the bottom [of the hill],” Kenworthy said. “It was something I was too scared to do for myself. To be able to do that, to give him a kiss, to have that affection broadcasted to the world is incredible. I think the only way to change perceptions, break down homophobia, break down barriers, is through representation. That’s something that I didn’t have as a kid. I definitely didn’t see a gay athlete at the Olympics kissing their boyfriend. And I think that if I had, it would have made it a lot easier for me. Hopefully it did that for other people.”
Athlete Ally, a group that supports LGBT athletes, said in a tweet that “visibility matters.”
“This moment of affection gives hope and inspiration to LGBTQ people,” the group messaged.
According to the AP, Kenworthy, who broke his thumb during practice on Thursday and was nursing a hematoma on his hip from an earlier fall, finished dead last in Sunday's finals.
“On his third and final trip down the course, after he veered off-line on the landing of the second-to-last jump, he simply skied to the side of the final ramp and took the easy way down, knowing his hopes for a second Olympic medal were gone,” the AP wrote.
“I'm bummed but I'm not sulking, I'm not crying,” Kenworthy said of not medaling. “Being out at this Games has kind of meant the world to me. … I don't know, maybe there's a next time.”