Gus Kenworthy is kaleidoscopic. You never get the same view of him twice.
You might glimpse him starring in American Horror Story, on the cover of Attitude; behind the camera or in front, usually with dog, Birdie, close by.
He’s always either shredding or smouldering, normally both.
One of his many day jobs is to defy gravity, an Olympic slopestyle silver medallist now bound for a Team GB debut in Beijing.
The tie that binds it all is what Kenworthy calls ‘living his truth’, a bargain he struck with himself and the world of action sports back in 2015.
He was the first in that world to come out - and if six years ago you overheard conversations at the start gate, you would see why.
“The language that gets used in the sport is inherently homophobic, without people even realising it,” said Kenworthy.
“Anything that's bad, the course, the judges, is chalked up to being ‘gay’. People will compliment you and say ‘no homo’ and the other F word gets thrown around all the time.
“What if people knew that those words that they're throwing around are actually me, I'm those things?”
The ESPN Magazine cover that heralded Kenworthy’s coming out interview asked: ‘is being the best in the world good enough to be accepted?’
Coming a year after his historic Olympic silver in Sochi, it was an arresting question that not even Kenworthy himself felt he owned the answer to.
I am gay. pic.twitter.com/086ayvChq2
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) October 22, 2015
“It was this ongoing feeling that it's really hard being in the closet, and it's pretty debilitating,” he said.
“I was really scared of what was going to be waiting for me on the other side.
“Eventually, I got to a point where the pain of holding on to the lie, and continuing with this sort of false narrative was actually greater than the fear of what might happen.
“So I decided to just say, screw it and see what happens. And the reaction was honestly, so much more supportive and positive than I could have ever expected.”
If the 30-year-old was the best in the world when he gave that interview, he got even better when he told the sporting world about his sexuality.
The next year was the best of his career, yielding four of his five X Games medals, more honours on the Dew Tour, World Cup podiums in both slopestyle and halfpipe.
“It was just a really spectacular season and I've never had a season like that prior to that or since then,” said Kenworthy.
“And I chalked it up to the fact that I had just basically come out and had this big weight taken off my shoulders and I wasn't forced to compartmentalise my life and I was able to just be proud.”
Nothing could stop Kenworthy from living his truth but there were people and places and things that helped him on the way.
The Chelmsford-born star knows a trailblazer when he sees one, and carries the same flame as Olympic champion Tom Daley.
“I genuinely just adore Tom,” he said. “Tom coming out was actually a factor in me coming out.
“Him getting to live his truth as an Olympian really did have a really significant impact on me and was something that helped me speak my truth. So I feel indebted to Tom Daley.
“Also, I just think he's a wonderful athlete and a really sweet guy. And yeah, he just, I feel like he does a lot right.
“I'm so excited to represent Team GB. There are so many incredible athletes that I feel very fortunate to be on the same team as, and Tom, definitely one of those.”
Both Daley and Kenworthy use their platform to strive for a better world, not for triumph, but for struggle.
The conversations that Kenworthy overhears in China will be very different to his early experiences in skiing - and no-one has done more than him to make that change.
“Since I came out, I’ve noticed people catching themselves saying different things, and then sort of course correcting and changing the word or they would say it and they would sort of look at me and be like ‘oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that,’” he said.
“For me, that was actually really refreshing. It was a really nice, nice thing because it kind of made me realise that these people weren't saying these things to be malicious, it was just ingrained.
“It wasn't anything other than just a learned behaviour. And once they had context for it, they were willing to acknowledge that they were making a mistake and that wasn't what they mean.
“That's all you can really ask anybody - to try and do better.”
Sportsbeat 2021