Gus Kenworthy flies a rainbow flag in new Head and Shoulders ad
Olympian Gus Kenworthy flies a rainbow flag in a new advert for shampoo brand Head and Shoulders.
Kenworthy, who is openly gay, is a brand ambassador for Head and Shoulders ahead of the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month.
He appears in a number of ads for the brand.
“As the first openly gay action sports athlete, Kenworthy will be featured within the brand’s Shoulders of Greatness campaign, which highlights all of the things people carry on their shoulders—pride, pressure, expectations—and how that motivates them to overcome any challenges and focus on achieving greatness,” a spokesperson for the brand told Attitude.
“Head & Shoulders celebrates how Kenworthy carries pride in himself, his country, his family and his community, allowing him to achieve greatness as he looks ahead toward PyeongChang.”
“I’m thrilled to be part of the Shoulders of Greatness campaign as it resonates with my journey,” Kenworthy adds.
“Before coming out, I was carrying so much pressure that I put on myself. It wasn’t until I made the decision to come out that I was able to release that weight off my shoulders and find the confidence to be myself, which allowed me to perform my best.”
Watch the ad below:
Olympian Gus Kenworthy and actor Matthew Wilkas last year opened up about coming out and the beauty of their relationship.
Talking to OUT, the couple spoke about how they met and how Kenworthy came out by announcing his relationship to Wilkas.
“I wrote him this really long message on Instagram,” said the Olympic free skier.
“I said, ‘Hey, I think you’re really funny, and you seem really sweet, and I’ve been enjoying following you on Instagram, and actually I’m in the closet right now, and I’m coming to New York in a couple of weeks if you want to get a coffee or something’”.
The two agreed to meet for coffee – but Wilkas was going through a break-up and they didn’t meet for another year.
When they finally met up for dinner, on Kenworthy’s birthday, things went from 0-60 and soon enough they got together.
Kenworthy said: “The conversation was really easy, and we kissed outside the restaurant after dinner, and then he walked me back to my hotel and went on his way.
“We texted throughout the night, and the next day he came to the hotel to hang out again. I was actually there with my mom — but she was out wandering around, so Matt and I hooked up for the first time.”
Months later, the two finally confessed their love to each other in Connecticut while Wilkas was doing a play. Kenworthy visited Wilkas as a surprise.
Wilkas said: “We were on the couch kissing, and I’d been sitting on the words for a long time, the feeling of it, and I just said, ‘I have something I want to say, but I’m really scared to say it to you,’ and I started crying.”
Kenworthy added: “I could feel his heart beating and sensed his energy, and he turned to me and said, ‘I want to tell you something, but I’m scared,’ and I just totally hijacked it and said, ‘I love you.’ And then he said it back, and he was crying, and I was crying. It was really sweet.”
