Gus Kenworthy is hoping to emulate close friend and inspiration Tom Daley on the road to his Olympic comeback.
The 33-year-old freestyle skier was announced as part of GB Snowsport's squad for the 2025/26 season after taking three and a half years away from the sport post-Beijing 2022.
Kenworthy won freeski halfpipe silver for Team USA at Sochi 2014 before making the switch to Team GB ahead of Beijing 2022.
Coming out of a long break away from sport with ambitions to compete at another Olympics is something Kenworthy shares in common with fellow Team GB athlete Daley.
Daley returned from his time away from the diving boards to compete at Paris 2024 last summer and won men's synchro silver alongside Noah Williams.
It's something Kenworthy will be looking to do at the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, wanting to add another medal to his collection as part of a long and prosperous career.
"I think Tom is remarkable and his career is amazing," he said.
"He had such a long career which is something I've always admired in sport because people can win medals, but to be able to do that consistently and over a long period of time is the most impressive thing. I really admire that.
"He also came out as gay at a time that I was still struggling with my sexuality and I wanted to come out.
"I was a little different as I was in action sports and he was an Olympian, which at the time my sport was not in the Olympics.
"But there were a lot of parallels and so I looked up to him."
Daley's five Olympic Games might not be in reach for Kenworthy this time around, but the skier is excited about the chance of making a fourth Olympics at Milano Cortina 2026.
Kenworthy admitted that he believed he was fully done after stepping away from the slopes in 2022, finishing eighth in the men's halfpipe final in Beijing.
It was a decision based on a love-hate relationship with the sport he picked up when he was just three years old and has helped him since find fame and success.
"I was definitely not always going to come back," he said. "I was sure I was done.
"It's interesting because I love skiing but it's admittedly a love-hate relationship.
"I've done it my whole life and what started as a hobby and something that I did with my friends and brothers turned into a job with pressure and expectation.
"It changes what it means to you."
But after spending the last three years enjoying time with friends and family, moving house, finding love and adding a couple of acting credits to his CV, something changed in February 2025.
Kenworthy suddenly felt the itch to return and once again found his mind wandering to the slopes.
The skier teased his comeback with an Instagram reel on 9 May this year, asking his 1.2 million followers whether he should go for it or not.
Of course, the decision had already been made, and Kenworthy admitted a conscious decision to return to the slopes has brought with it the youthful feeling and raw excitement of action sports that he felt he had once lost.
"Now I've taken a break, I've found a love for it again in a way that feels more like it did at the very beginning," he said.
"It's that feeling of excitement. I used to be so in it, I lost sight and perspective.
"After stepping away I've realised what a fun life it was to travel and ski places and compete with the adrenaline rush.
"Being back on snow now for the first time in three years, it's all of that nervous energy and butterflies that I haven't had in that time.
"That's the feeling I'm so excited to have back in my life.
"I want to hopefully go to another Olympics. I just need to take it day by day and get a run together that I'll be proud to do at Milano Cortina."
Sportsbeat 2025