Olympic Skier Faces Avalanche Of Hate After Anti-ICE Pee Message In Snow

Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said Sunday he has been told to kill himself or break his neck competing at the Winter Olympics after he posted a message against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Instagram post, which encouraged fellow objectors to contact their senator as Democrats try to negotiate reform of enforcement procedures before a possible DHS shutdown, likely went viral for another reason.

Kenworthy said on Instagram that the message in the snow, “fuck ice,” was written in pee, hinting that he urinated the words. (Granted, it would take quite the peenmanship to do it.)

He said in his new Instagram video that he has gotten mostly encouraging responses and plenty of “awful” ones.

“Maybe that’s the price you pay for speaking up and using your platform,” he said, adding it was important to “stand up to injustice.”

Kenworthy recounted his personal story being born in England to his British mom and growing up in the United States, for which he won a silver medal at the 2014 Olympics. He now competes for Great Britain but still lives in America.

“You can love the U.S. and be proud to be an American ― I am ― and still think it can be better,” he said.

Kenworthy, who is competing in the freeski halfpipe at the Milan Cortina Games, reiterated that he doesn’t support the current administration or “evil and awful and terrifying” ICE.

The athlete said the majority of immigrants being targeted in DHS raids are nonviolent, good people who came to the U.S. seeking a better life.

“That is literally the foundation story of the U.S.,” he said. “I think people forget that.”