Skier Gus Kenworthy, other athletes get second chance at Olympic glory competing for a new country

More than six decades ago, Hungarian medalist Robert Zimonyi switched Olympic teams.

He was originally a bronze medalist coxswain for Hungary in the 1948 London Summer Games. But when the rower was back in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, a revolution raged back home against an emerging communist regime. Some citizens were killed, thousands were arrested.

When the Games ended, the Hungarian Olympians had to make the choice: to return home or defect.

Zimonyi defected to the United States.

And then he won gold in the 1964 Games in Tokyo – this time as an American.

Today, we think nothing of pro and college athletes switching teams in the U.S. today and now we’re seeing a few examples of it in the Olympics as well, without the dire circumstances that Zimonyi faced.

It all comes down to opportunity and second chances – often for American athletes who would not have earned an Olympic berth with Team USA but could make it on other countries' national teams less stockpiled with so much talent, comparatively speaking.

So that’s why you see our beloved Gus Kenworthy wearing the Union Jack in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

After winning a silver medal in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi for the U.S., the freeskier competed again for the U.S. in 2018. He gained as much fame for adopting puppies at the Games and coming out as gay as he did for his athletic achievements.

But in 2019 he decided to compete for Britain. He’s eligible to do this because his mother is British and he was born in England.

While he spent the last five months recovering from COVID-19 and a concussion, it probably wasn’t likely the 30-year-old would make all the events he wanted for the U.S. Olympic team anyway. But Britain had a spot for someone of his caliber.

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There are other examples as well.

Louie Vito started snowboarding when he was 6 in, Columbus, Ohio, competed in the 2010 Olympics, where he took fifth in the halfpipe, and resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. But this year he’s competing in the men’s halfpipe event for Italy.

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian was born in Wayne, New Jersey, lives in Texas and won a bronze with the U.S. in the 2014 Games. But she has been bobsledding for her father’s home country, Jamaica, for the last six years.

Olympic rules allow for these special considerations for athletes with dual citizenship. Athletes can pick the country they choose to represent, as long as three years have passed since their last Olympic competition with their other country.

For San Francisco born-and-raised 18-year-old Eileen Gu, it’s a different story. She is the most famous and recognizable American to compete for another country. She will be freeskiing for her mother’s home country, China, and Gu, who is also a model, has a massive fan and media following here.

The No. 1 world ranked slopestyle and halfpipe skier could have made any team.

But Kenworthy wanted to ski in the halfpipe, slopestyle, and inaugural big air contests at Beijing 2022. That would have been highly unlikely for the U.S., which has a lot of depth in all three events.

The U.S. qualifying is “very dog-eat-dog and insane,” and qualifying for Britain is less competitive, said Kenworthy. The U.S. has 115 male athletes competing in Beijing; Great Britain only has 27.

But while that’s a very practical answer for changing countries, Kenworthy has other reasons as well.

"I thought I was going to be done after 2018 and basically took a year off from competing," he told British GQ . "When I was thinking about it again, I was like, you know what, I still think there's more in the tank. I still think I want to do this, but I want to approach it differently.

“If I did it for Great Britain, I could have this beautiful thing for my mother. She's been my number one fan, and she's stood by me this whole time, and I think that she would be really appreciative of it and excited about it.

“And it also will allow me to qualify and not be in this position where two months before the games, I'm scrambling to earn my spot against a bunch of the other best guys in the world. And I could bring more interest hopefully to Britain for the sport that they're not really known for, and bring more funding to the British team. Hopefully, it creates a trickle-down effect where it just helps build the sport up in the UK.”