Gus Kenworthy, the 2014 Olympic silver medalist in freeski slopestyle, tweeted that he broke his thumb while practicing on the course in PyeongChang. The injury will not stop him from competing this week though.
Fans will also be delighted to know that the injury clearly hasn’t affected Kenworthy’s sense of humor.
Broke my thumb yesterday in practice. It won't stop me from competing (obvi) but it does prevent me from shaking Pence's hand so... Silver linings! Will be giving my teammates (and literally everyone else) an enthusiastic "thumbs up!" of encouragement the rest of the trip. pic.twitter.com/XylPPGAq9P
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 15, 2018
While painful, broken thumbs aren’t something that normally take skiers out of major competitions, but they can require some modifications. Canadian halfpipe skier Cassie Sharpe recently broke her thumb while competing in an X Games final and had to tape her pole to her hand for the rest of the contest. She won the bronze medal with one of those runs that came after the broken thumb.