In retrospect, the boos proved prescient.
During the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina, the crowd at San Siro stadium cheered when the US team entered during the parade of nations. When the camera cut to Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance, the jeers began. A few days prior, protesters had gathered in Milan following reports that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be coming to the Italian city for the Games. Coupled with the Vances’ chilly reception, it foretold a Winter Olympics more fraught than any in recent memory.
Going into the Winter Games, several US athletes expressed discomfort at representing a country currently in turmoil over ICE’s actions in Minnesota and the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
“Just ’cause I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US,” freestyle skier Hunter Hess said during a press conference at the beginning of the Games when asked how it felt to be on Team USA during Trump’s immigration crackdown. Figure skater Amber Glenn, who came out as pansexual in 2019, told reporters the current political climate in the US is an opportunity for the queer community to support other groups also facing threats to their human rights. “It’s made us a lot stronger,” she said.
For better or worse, the Olympics are typically a place of unabashed, corny nationalism. No one is better at that than Americans. (Cue the chants of “USA! USA!”) During an event focused on athletic marvels, it becomes easy to shrug off politics and the baggage of any team’s home country. While not unheard of, it's rare for athletes to even question the idea of wearing the flag or admit they struggled with it. But that sentiment has crept up more than once during the Milano Cortina Games. And maybe that's a good thing.
After Hess’ comments made the rounds online, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to call him “a real Loser,” while Glenn says she has received “a scary amount of hate/threats,” prompting her to take a social media break.
Athletes like snowboarder Chloe Kim and freestyle skier Eileen Gu found themselves defending Hess during Olympics press conferences. Kim, who competes for the US and whose parents are South Korean immigrants, said the question of representing America hit “pretty close to home,” adding “I think in moments like these it is important for us to unite and stand up for one another.” Gu, who was born in the US but competes for China, lamented that the “headline that is eclipsing the Olympics has to be something so … unrelated to the spirit of the Games.”
In response to Gu’s comments, Vance said he hoped someone “who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place” would want to compete with the US team, adding, “I’m going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans.” Earlier in the Games, he told reporters that the athletes are not at the Olympics to “pop off about politics,” adding that they should expect some “pushback” if they do.
But the Olympics have always provided a platform for athletes to demonstrate that not every competitor’s views align with their leaders’. Even if they don’t intend their statements to be political, they’re right to remind everyone that wearing the flag does not equate to supporting Trump. Often, their statements get politicized anyway, and as Glenn pointed out on Instagram, speaking your mind is—or should be—a very American thing to do. Referencing the threats she’d received, she noted they came after she “chose to utilize one of the amazing things about the United States of America (freedom of speech) to convey how I feel.”