U.S. Olympians Give Voice to American Realities

And the president of the United States hates it.

By Megan Armstrong

In late January, best-selling author and MS NOW host Chris Hayes visited Late Night with Seth Meyers and cut to the root of the Trump administration: “They think they can control reality,” he said. “And, in the end, it’s almost this sort of elemental battle that you see time and time again with sort-of would-be authoritarian regimes about whether reality can emerge triumphant over this kind of regime of lies.”

Hayes’ assessment correlated with federal agents gunning down Alex Pretti in the streets of Minneapolis on Jan. 24, but his sentiment applies to every hourly horror dispatched by this administration and its MAGA cohort.

Amber Glenn at the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy competition. (Phantom Kabocha via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s also the only lens through which to view what has happened so far at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

To start, Vice President JD Vance was met with boos at the opening ceremony in San Siro Stadium. Trump couldn’t believe it. “Is that true?” he asked reporters aboard Air Force One. It was true, of course, but it was just the start of an avalanche of truth from U.S. Olympians.

“I feel heartbroken about what’s happened in the United States,” Team USA freestyle skier Chris Lillis said at a press conference in Milan. “I’m pretty sure you’re referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that. I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens, as well as anybody, with love and respect. And I hope that when people look at athletes [who] compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”

At the same presser, Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess said, “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard.” He added, “If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Hess and Lillis acted like Americans, and MAGA’s collective brain broke — led by the Keyboard Warrior in Chief.

“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

In other words, Trump was upset that Hess behaved like an American skier with opinions of his own rather than a MAGA cheerleader regurgitating state propaganda. But it doesn’t stop at Trump; it never has.

Megyn Kelly called U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn a “turncoat” because Glenn used her press conference to speak to the Trump administration’s negative impact on the LGBTQ+ community. “I know that a lot of people say, ‘You’re just an athlete, like, stick to your job, shut up about politics,’ but politics affect us all,” said Glenn, the first openly queer U.S. Olympic women’s singles figure skater. “It is something that I will not just be quiet about.”

Kelly’s was one of many MAGA X (formerly and forever known as Twitter) posts denigrating outspoken athletes — proving their critics correct in the process.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), posted on X Sunday, “Representing the United States — a beacon for freedom and democracy — at the Olympics is an honor. Anyone who feels otherwise should be stripped of their USA Olympic uniform.”

“YOU chose to wear our flag,” U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) posted. “YOU chose to represent our country. YOU chose to compete at the Olympics. If that’s too hard for you, then GO HOME. Some things are bigger than politics. You just don’t get it.”

They don’t get it. They don’t want to get it.

All-time great Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin quoted Nelson Mandela (“Peace is the creation of an environment where we can all flourish, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste, or any other social markers of difference”), and MAGA sycophants even hated that.

The Olympics are a global display of human excellence, and humanity is inherently political. So, the Olympics have been a global political spectacle since at least 1906. We can all conjure the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ Black power salute during the national anthem at the 1968 Mexico City Games. More recently, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, several women’s soccer teams, led by the U.S. team, knelt in protest of racism.

I’ve been revisiting something retired U.S. women’s national team icon Megan Rapinoe said to NPR’s Fresh Air in November 2020: “When I look at the flag, what I want to see is us constantly trying to live up to these words and live up to this ideal where all people are free, and all people do have all of the rights, and all people can have a life filled with liberty and justice for all…. But I think we just so clearly have so far to go. And so, I see patriotism as constantly demanding better of ourselves.”

I see patriotism as constantly demanding better of ourselves.

At the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, U.S. Olympians are demanding better. They refuse to be bullied into co-signing a version of America that suffocates American ideals. Being American is supposed to mean having the freedom to embody different identities, cultures, and experiences and to express them freely. The four-member U.S. women’s halfpipe team gave voice to that — Chloe Kim posted about the weight she’s carrying as a daughter of immigrants.

Holding a mirror up to our country’s reality is the most patriotic thing our Olympians could do.

Anything else is a lie.

Megan Armstrong is a freelance journalist, podcast producer, and perpetual content consumer. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Teen Vogue, The Kansas City Star, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere

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