Gus Kenworthy says he took death threats 'with a grain of salt' after anti-ICE post

gus kenworthy, competing at his fourth Olympics in Italy, said he received death threats after posting a graphic message about the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement organisation on Instagram a week before he was due to compete.

Kenworthy finished sixth as Alex Ferreira claimed gold

Kenworthy finished sixth in Friday's halfpipe final, where American Alex Ferreira won gold to complete his set of Olympic medals. The placement left Kenworthy off the podium but inside the top 10 in a field that included fellow US skier Hunter Hess, who placed 10th.

Gus Kenworthy on threats and the Instagram post

Kenworthy said the threats were "tough" and that reading violent, scary and homophobic messages was painful. "I also took it with a grain of salt, " he added, saying he could not imagine writing that kind of post publicly. The image he shared showed the word 'ICE' preceded by an expletive and was posted roughly a week before his scheduled competition in Italy.

Protests in the US followed deaths in January and enforcement actions

The post came after a string of incidents in January in which intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and Renee Good, 37, were killed by ICE agents in the city, sparking protests across the United States. Tom Homan said earlier in February that Operation Metro Surge had detained many people and that more than 4, 000 undocumented immigrants had been arrested.

Hunter Hess, who had also spoken out against the actions of ICE, made an 'L' sign on his forehead during qualifying after completing his first run. Hess said he had worked "so hard to be here" and that controversy would not get in his way.

Born in Chelmsford and raised in the United States, Kenworthy won a silver medal in the ski slopestyle at the Sochi 2014 Games and switched his allegiance to Team GB in 2019. Competing at his fourth Olympics, gus kenworthy has both an Olympic medal from 2014 and recent top-10 finishes at these Games.

Kenworthy's comments and his on-snow result closed another chapter of the halfpipe competition in Italy. He remains part of Team GB's contingent at these Winter Games and is scheduled to stay for the remainder of the Olympic programme in Italy.