Gus Kenworthy threatened with death after my anti-ICE protest

The skier freestyle Gus Kenworthy winner of one silver medal for Team USA in 2014 in slopestyle, reported receiving “horrible” messages with insults and death threats after his criticisms of the policies of Donald Trump and the photo posted with the writing written in the snow with his urine to protest against theICE before his fourth Olympic race in Milan-Cortina.

“People who told me to commit suicide, threatened me, wanted to see me break my knee or my neck during my race, insulted me… it’s crazy,” he said on social media. 34enne athlete originally from Essex (born to an English mother and an American father) who competed for the USA at the Sochi and PyeongChang Games before announcing in 2019 that he would take up skiing for his native nation.

The protest and online reactions

“The other day I posted a photo with my thoughts onICE and that picture has been everywhere ever since,” Kenworthy reported, “and I’ve gotten a lot of messages and most of them, honestly, have been from support and encouragement. But many of the messages were horrible“. Kenworthy, born in England but who has lived in the United States most of his life, had published on Instagram a photo of the “f*** ICE” sign, apparently done urinating on the snow.

Kenworthy’s political appeal

Not only that, but Kenworthy had also published a message urging i US citizens to put pressure on the senators of their districts to deny funding to the controversial issue anti-immigration force. “Innocent people have been killed, enough is enough,” Kenworthy wrote again.

Some Olympic athletesparticularly those from Minnesota, criticized ICE in their speeches or wore pins that read “ICE OUT“.

The position of the Olympic committee

The British Olympic Association had said it would not adopt any disciplinary action against Kenworthy as that post, which was shared outside the Olympic context, did not concern the Team GB. “During the Olympic Games all participants have the opportunity to express their views according to the guidelines for the expression of athletes“, explains a spokesperson for the Olympic Committee, “the IOC does not regulate the personal posts on social networks“.