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Alyssa Roenigk
GUS KENWORTHY DIDN’T know if he would ever say it out loud. Three years after retiring from professional skiing and less than a year ahead of the 2026 Olympics, a radical thought tugged at his mind: At 34, he wanted one more shot at competing on his sport’s biggest stage.
The three-time Olympian had already walked away once. And in the years since the 2022 Beijing Games, he had curated an enviable life working as an actor, model and LGBTQ+ advocate. He traveled the world and was a popular fixture on red carpets and at glitzy Hollywood parties. He didn’t need skiing. But he started to feel like an imposter in his own life.
«I’d be at a party, and someone would ask, ‘What do you do now?'» Kenworthy says. «And I wouldn’t know how to answer. Saying anything other than, ‘I’m a professional skier,’ felt wrong coming out of my mouth. I felt a loss of my sense of identity.»
But he was scared. What if his body failed him? What would his competitors, many of whom were nearly half his age, think? What if his life didn’t wait for him?
Then he saw Lindsey Vonn return to the podium of a World Cup race in Sun Valley, Idaho, in March 2025, five months after her 40th birthday and six months after she returned to skiing from a six-year retirement, and he saw what could happen if he pushed beyond his fears.
a cover story for ESPN The Magazine, he felt pressure to represent the community for which he had become a public face. At his third, he represented Great Britain, his mother’s home country, and he wanted to make his mom proud.
This time, he’ll still be embraced at the bottom of the halfpipe by his family and fans waving rainbow flags, but he knows they will be just as proud if he finishes first or last. The only person he has to make proud this time is himself.
«I made a really deliberate choice to come back and put myself and my body on the line again,» Kenworthy says and wipes tears from his eyes. He hadn’t expected to cry talking about this.
«I’m proud to have made that decision. I feel like this Olympics — this one’s for me.»
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Why Gus Kenworthy chose to come back
Gus Kenworthy reflects on why he returned to halfpipe skiing after retiring in 2022 — and why he made a deliberate choice to put himself back on the line and compete entirely for himself.
WHEN SCHAFFRICK LEFT her coaching role to return to competition, not everyone was happy for her. Some parents and athletes posted on social media questioning her motives. People accused her of taking opportunities away from their children, of abusing her power as a coach and having an unfair advantage. She was told several people filed complaints with the sport’s governing body, although she never faced discipline.
«Their view is that what I’m doing is unethical,» Schaffrick says. «I get how what I’m doing is confusing for some people. I feel terrible if their anger comes from a sense that I took something away from them or their child. That was never my intention. If anything, I hope I can inspire your daughter.»
For the first time in her life, Schaffrick was mentally strong enough to let go of what other people think. She had spent so many years wondering how she could have done things differently. A self-described people pleaser, she realized the person she wanted to please most is 19-year-old Maddy Schaffrick.
«When I realized that my inner voice is never going to go away, but all the outside voices eventually will, that’s when I was like, ‘I can’t turn my back on this because I’m the one who has to live with my choices and the regret and shame of the past,'» she says.
She offered to share her story with the athletes on the U.S. team in the hopes they would understand. «I told them, ‘I always have your back,'» Schaffrick says. «‘I want you to know I’m doing this for me and not against you.'»
called her «mad,» another suggested she see a psychologist. Some people said she was only returning to racing because she had nothing else in her life. She too had to remind herself only she knew why she had returned and how far she could push herself in the process.
«I can’t pretend like I have thick enough skin to not have some of that stuff get through,» Vonn says. «But at the same time, I’m not doing this for anyone else. I’m doing this for myself. I know what I’m capable of. So, while those comments hurt, it is no reflection of me. It’s more a reflection of them.»
She also knew something her critics didn’t: Her body was as strong as it had been in years.
Before retiring, none of these athletes had taken considerable time off. Time away had allowed them to heal, and modern medicine could fix what was broken. Within a month of undergoing a partial knee replacement in April 2024, Vonn could straighten her leg fully and perform exercises she hadn’t done in years. She could ski without pain.
As a coach, Schaffrick learned the value of working out, rehabbing injuries and resting. «I didn’t know any of that when I was a kid. I had five knee surgeries before I was 18,» she says. «At that time, there wasn’t as much care and attention going into the recovery process before I was put back on snow.»
Kenworthy and Goepper, both in their 30s, say they have been smarter about how they train, prioritizing rest and recovery as much as training sessions in the halfpipe. «Sometimes I wake up and I’m sore, and I’m like, ‘Man, my competitors are 18,'» Goepper says. «But then I look at my track record and realize, ‘Whatever I’m doing is working. I won the X Games for a fifth time at 30.»
The Snow League stop in Beijing in December, and Goepper won silver at X Games Aspen the next month. Schaffrick has podiumed four times since 2024 and locked up the 2025-26 national halfpipe title with a second-place finish at January’s Aspen Grand Prix. After the medal ceremony, she was mobbed in the finish by her parents, cousins and girlfriend, many of whom had never watched her compete in person. They had never seen her look so proud.
Goepper could become the first freeskier to medal in four Olympics on Feb. 20. He could even share a podium with Kenworthy again. For Kenworthy and Schaffrick, both medal hopefuls, success is making finals and landing runs that make them proud.
On Tuesday, Vonn sat down in front of a microphone in Cortina to tell the world she would still compete at the Olympics despite rupturing the ACL in her left knee — the one that wasn’t recently surgically repaired — in a crash a week before the Games. Dressed in a white Team USA puffer jacket, she was calm and matter of fact about her injury, just one of countless setbacks she has dealt with in her long career.
«What’s 90 seconds in a lifetime? It’s nothing,'» Vonn said, referencing the advice that her longtime coach, Erich Sailer, gave her ahead of the 2019 World Championships. «You can do it.»
That she is lining up at all says everything about how much this return means to Vonn. She knows her chances to become the oldest skier to win an Olympics aren’t the same as they were before the knee injury, «but as long as there’s a chance, I will try,» she said.
«I will be in the starting gate. This has already been one of the best chapters in my life so far. This would be the best comeback — definitely the most dramatic.»
When Vonn announced her return, she said that while she was inspired by her friend Roger Federer as well as athletes such as Lewis Hamilton and Tom Brady who have competed into their 40s, she wanted to be a role model for future generations of women in ski racing.
«I draw a lot of inspiration from women, too,» Vonn says. «But in ski racing, there isn’t that example. That’s why I hope I can change that perspective within our sport.»
Seeing Federer play until he was 41 helped Vonn listen to her inner voice. Seeing Vonn on a podium again helped Kenworthy listen to his. When she lines up in the start gate Sunday, Vonn knows she isn’t just racing for herself, but for all the athletes who will see her and one day listen to the voice in the back of their minds, too.
Seven months before the opening ceremony, Schaffrick was already thinking about how she hopes this moment will be remembered.
«When I heard about each person making a comeback — Nick, Lindsey, Gus — it was inspiring to know there’s a group of us listening to our internal calls and taking action on them, no matter what people think,» Schaffrick says. «It takes a lot of courage, and I’m hoping we’re living in an era of courage.»
