Gus Kenworthy finished sixth in the men’s freeski half-pipe final, falling twice to end his hopes of a medal under the lights at Livigno Snow Park.
American Alex Ferreira won gold with an unbeaten score of 93.75 on his final run, while Estonia’s 19-year-old Henry Sildaru took silver with 93.00 and Canadian Brendan Mackay bronze with 91.00.
Kenworthy qualified in ninth place having come out of retirement from the sport for one more tilt at the Olympic Games.
The 34-year-old put a promising acting career on hold last year to self-fund his way into contention at Milano-Cortina, putting nearly $200,000 of his own savings into a comeback after all of GB Snowsport’s funding was allocated to athletes already within the system.
And he made it against the odds, accruing enough World Cup points to qualify for his fourth Olympics.
In the first run of Friday’s final he fell on his first jump, scoring a mere six points, but produced a brilliant second to score 84.75 and rocket into the lead, after several of his fellow competitors also fell.
That run put him in fifth position after the second run, but a messy landing on his third and final trick on his third run meant he would not improve, and he shrugged his shoulders in acceptance that it would not be enough for a medal.
He said: “I’m proud of myself for making it here. I’m proud of myself for putting a run down. That second run was not the run that I was wanting, not the run that I was hoping for, but I saw that a lot of people weren’t putting runs down and thought maybe play a little strategy game and just try and put something on the board.
“In a lot of ways it’s been the Olympic experience that I had wanted and hoped for and trained for and planned for and dreamt of. I think if I had landed that third run, whether or not I ended up on the box or not, I think that would have been really the dream come true scenario.
“Last Olympics, I was over it. I was checked out. I had these head injuries. I was ready to be done. And this Olympics, there’s not a little even part of that, I’m having fun, I’m skiing well. I’ve got some knee issues. I’m excited for the season to be over and to give it a break. But other than that, I feel like I’m healthy, I’m strong, I’m skiing well, and I’m enjoying it, so I definitely want to keep going.”
Born in Essex, Kenworthy moved to Colorado at the age of two and competed for the USA in his first two Olympics, winning slopestyle silver in Sochi 2014.
He switched allegiance to Great Britain after the 2018 Olympics, representing his mother’s home country, but is still based in the US.
Kenworthy made the headlines prior to competing for his outspoken stance against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), posting a passionate message to social media urging his followers to call for the agency to be reined in, alongside an image appearing to show him urinating ‘F*** Ice’ in snow.
He received a torrent of abuse online, including death threats, for the post, and has endured a barrage of homophobic abuse in the build-up to his fourth Olympic appearance.
Kenworthy said after the final that the controversy and the resulting abuse had affected him “a little bit” but he remained committed to speaking his mind.
He said: “I thought about that a little bit. I don’t care what these people are saying. It is our constitutional right as Americans to say what we feel, have freedom of speech, speak truth to power.”
American skier Hunter Hess, who was branded a “loser” by US president Donald Trump for expressing “mixed emotions” about representing the US and has endured “the hardest two weeks” of his life since then, fell twice and finished 10th.
Hess said after qualifying that he had spoken with Kenworthy and the pair had shared their experiences of being abused online over their political principles.
He said: “We had a training camp in Laax and we just chatted about it, kind of how we got through the hardship. He gave me some pointers, which was really nice. And he just helped me have a little bit of an avenue to get out of the pain and focus on the good.”
Kenworthy said after the final: “I think it took a toll on Hunter for sure at the beginning, naturally. And then I think it turned a corner where I think he was sort of able… I think honestly when the president called him a loser, I think that was like a moment where he’s like, okay, this is actually LOL at this point.
“And honestly, whether it’s the right thing or the wrong thing, Hunter is a household name right now. And I’m happy he is. He spoke his mind.”
