American freeskier Gus Kenworthy may be competing at the South Korean Winter Olympics with a broken thumb and a nasty hip bruise, but he just got some very special celebrity encouragement on Twitter.
“So proud of #TeamUSA!! Hey @guskenworthy, gimme, gimme more on the slopes today!!” Britney Spears tweeted on Saturday afternoon ahead of Kenworthy’s slopestyle event on Sunday (which airs Saturday night stateside).
Spears, 36, hashtagged her message of encouragement “#ItsGusBitch,” and the whole thing sent the 26-year-old Kenworthy into exclamatory joy.
“Oh. My. God. Was really not prepared to wake up to this,” he responded, retweeting her message. ” Not sure how I’m gonna ski today because I’m LITERALLY dead now but I’m gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney! Ilysm!!!”
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Oh. My. God. Was really not prepared to wake up to this. Not sure how I’m gonna ski today because I’m LITERALLY dead now but I’m gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney! Ilysm!!!
https://t.co/yhoEJq1qRL
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Spears appears to have been referencing a recent article where Kenworthy said he listens to her song “Gimme More” at every competition.
He told Elite Daily: “During the season I will have a song that I’ll kind of be listening to during competitions or the warm-up, and if I end up doing well at that event, then that will be my song for the season. And this season, my first win was at our selection event, I was playing ‘Gimme More’ by Britney Spears. So I have listened to that Britney Spears song at every competition round since, and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet.”
To make it even more clear, Kenworthy tweeted a link to that piece back to Spears as a reply her original message.
“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! Thank you for this @britneyspears! I will, as always, be bumping to you, today!” he wrote with it.
Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! Thank you for this @britneyspears! I will, as always, be bumping to you, today!
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Kenworthy isn’t the only Olympian that Spears has her eye on. On Friday she tweeted about figure skater Adam Rippon, referencing a joke he made about his haters following one of his Olympic competitions.
“I just wanted let you know that I am a fan, I am not in denial, and that you are THE MOST FUN!!” she wrote, in part. “Keep making us all smile.”
Rippon, 28, responded with an excitement similar to Kenworthy.
“I could feel you on the ice with me @britneyspears,” he tweeted Saturday after his free skate in the men’s individual event. “I now have an OVERWHELMING desire to post Instagram fashion shows, google stock imagines of corn, and paint on the balcony of my dorm in the Olympic village. Thank you for not being in denial, LOVE YOU.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics are airing live on NBC. To learn more, visit teamusa.org.