At the start of the Winter Olympics, President Donald Trump called Hunter Hess a “real loser” after the US freeskier dared to admit that he had mixed feelings about representing his country.
As he swooped down the halfpipe on Friday morning, Hess delivered a neat riposte, flashing a L-sign with his hand before insisting his row with Trump was something “I definitely wear with pride”.
“Apparently I am a loser,” Hess said when asked about his gesture. “I am leaning into it.”
His spectacular run earned him a place in the men’s halfpipe final later in the day. However, the 27-year-old was unable to further rub Trump’s nose in it, as he failed to get a clean run and finished 10th.
The Estonian Henry Sildaru, who took silver, and the Canadian, Brendan Mackay, who won bronze, both had cases for gold. However, it was another American, Alex Ferreira, who emerged triumphant. And after collecting his gold medal he firmly backed his teammate. “Hunter is a member of our team,” he said. “He’s a great guy. Others may disagree. But I stand by my teammate.”
Afterwards, Hess admitted that despite abuse he had received from Trump – and the online attacks that followed – he had no regrets about speaking out about the problems back home. “I worked so hard to be here,” he said. “I sacrificed my entire life to make this moment happen. I’m not going to let controversy like that get in my way.
“I love the United States of America. I cannot say that enough. In my original statement, I felt like I said that, but apparently people didn’t take it that way. I’m so happy to be here, so happy to represent Team USA and ride as much as I can. I stand with what I said.”
However, Hess admitted that at times it had not been easy. “There was a lot of noise and I’ve never been subject to that type of criticism,” he said. “But with my family’s help, I was able to get through it. And skiing has saved my life, time and time again, and it seems to have done so again. It was probably the hardest two weeks of my life.”
Britain’s Gus Kenworthy, who was born in the UK but moved to the US when he was young, had also created controversy before the Games because of an Instagram image that went viral. After finishing sixth in the final, Kenworthy admitted that the outrage over his post, which had apparently been written in urine on the snow and read “Fuck ICE”, a reference to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, affected him.
“But I don’t care what these people are saying,” said Kenworthy. “It is our constitutional right as Americans to say what we feel, have freedom of speech, speak truth to power. No one wants to read bad things about themselves, things that are threats and violent and scary and homophobic. But I also took it with a grain of salt. I couldn’t imagine writing something like that about someone, especially on a public forum, anyone who does that has something wrong with them. I think I’m on the right side.”
Hess and Kenworthy also trained together before their event in Laax, Switzerland, where they shared their similar experiences.
“We just chatted about it, kind of how we got through the hardship,” said Hess. “He gave me some pointers, which was really nice. And he just helped me have a little bit of an avenue to get out of the pain and focus on the good.”
The dangers of the sport were illustrated when the event favourite, Finley Melville Ives, needed treatment for several minutes after a heavy crash in qualifying. In the final there was another serious crash as Nick Goepper landed hard on his back after a big trick, but he too was able to walk away after medical treatment.
