Kenworthy recovers from fall to bow out with 8th in halfpipe

Freestyle Skiing 19 Feb 22

Gus Kenworthy called time on his career as a competitive skier by showing all his fighting spirit to battle back from a hard fall to record an eighth-place finish in the halfpipe.

The 30-year-old was competing at his third Olympics but Beijing 2022 was his first representing Great Britain, the country of his birth and his mother’s homeland.

A silver medallist at Sochi 2014, Kenworthy had hopes of forcing his way onto the podium again but he was forced to dig deep after missing a clean landing on his first run before hitting the pipe with considerable force in his second.

“Second run I had a pretty bad slam. I was feeling sore and knew that my third run was going to be my last contest run ever and that was my motivation,” revealed Kenworthy, who admitted he did not know what was next for him.

"I dug deep and was able to put it down but it was pretty loose and windy, it wasn't the run I wanted to do but I was grateful to make it down in one piece and end on my feet.

“It's all good - it wasn't quite what I hoped for but I'm still pretty proud of it."

Conditions wreaked havoc with the halfpipe as blustery winds made gravity-defying tricks even more difficult than usual but it was New Zealander Nico Porteous who dealt with them best to claim gold ahead of American duo David Wise and Alex Ferreira.

Kenworthy’s third run scored him 71.25 which was comfortably enough to take him inside the top ten and he hoped he’d made family and friends proud at the conclusion of his third Games and glittering skiing career.

“I feel very lucky to be back here for a third Games and doing it for Team GB has been awesome,” he explained. “I just love all the people at the programme and the other athletes.

"The Olympics has changed my life, it has provided so much, all the opportunities I've had through skiing, and my silver medal, is crazy to me and I feel very lucky.

"This last performance was for my mum and doing it for GB. I hope I made her proud, I'm sure I did.

“It wasn't a medal or quite what I set out for but it all comes down to the day and it was a tough day today."