What makes a hot Olympic skier even hotter? One who wants to save all the stray dogs in Sochi! When he’s not on the slopes, Team USA slopestyle skier Gus Kenworthy has taken to his Twitter and Facebook account to share pictures of himself cuddling stray puppies in Sochi.
As you are well aware, Sochi has been in the middle of a PR and animal rights nightmare after it came to light that Sochi city officials were trying to exterminate thousands of stray dogs in preparation for the Olympics. When word got out, people were rightly outraged and many efforts have been made to save as many of these dogs as possible. And the 22-year-old skier is doing his part – Gus is prepared to bring four of these puppies home with him.
On February 11, he wrote: “Spent all afternoon playing with a gang of stray puppies here in Sochi! Looking into finding a way to bring them home with me but also don’t want to take them away from their mama because she was being super cute and protective over them. I bought them some food and I’ll go visit them again tomorrow.”
His puppy love hasn’t faded. We’re pleased to announce that things are underway for these pups to become U.S. citizens: “Also, for the people wondering, I’ve lined up kennels 4 the pups & made vaccination appointments,” he tweeted. “Doing all I can to bring them home w/ me!” Not only will he bring home a silver medal for the men’s ski slopestyle competition, but he’ll hopefully also bring four puppies as well – which in our opinion is better than a medal!
