(Image by Matthew Seger for Them)

Them profiles Gus Kenworthy in a new story and informative, intimate video.

From the story:

“I was the number one ranked U.S. guy going into the games during the qualification process, and I was a medal favorite, and I felt confident I was going to get a medal,”Gus explains. But after crashing during the halfpipe qualifier and breaking his thumb during training ahead of the slopestyle event, he felt the Olympics “slipping away” ...

“The day before my event, I’m getting this massive hematoma on my hip drained, and I’m thinking, ‘How am I even going to ski tomorrow?’” he recalls. “I was in this dark space where it was like, ‘Is it better to pull out of the game entirely? Or do I run and maybe not do well?’” ...

“With all of the positive attention, I also got a lot of negativity. That’s something people don’t see as much unless they’re in our shoes, and I feel no other athletes have to face it in the same way,” he says ...

“It’s hard to read horrible things and just brush it off because you’re at the biggest event in the world — you already have so much pressure, but then you have people telling you they hope you fail?” Gus says. Sadly, he notes that the hatred has yet to die down in the wake of the Games — but he has acquainted himself with Instagram’s word filter and block tools ...

Keep reading for the great video ...