Members of USA’s freestyle skiing team admit they have mixed emotions about representing America at the Winter Olympics amid the country’s immigration chaos.
The Games are officially up and running in Italy after a spectacular opening ceremony kickstarted the sporting extravaganza on Friday.
However, Team USA will be competing at the Milan-Cortina Olympics while protests against ICE – Donald Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement agency – continue to ramp up both back home and abroad.
Days before the curtain-raiser, protestors swept through the streets of Milan to demonstrate against the deployment of ICE agents at the Olympics, just weeks after two US citizens were fatally shot by officers.
To make matters worse, Team USA and United States Vice President JD Vance were also jeered by furious Italians at Friday’s opening ceremony.
And as fury towards ICE reaches boiling point, Team USA aerials specialist Chris Lillis, speaking in Milan on Friday morning ahead of the Games, admitted he is ‘heartbroken’ by recent events in America.
Members of USA’s freestyle skiing team have mixed emotions about representing their country at the Winter Olympics amid ongoing ICE raids in America
Protestors swept through the streets of Milan this week to demonstrate against ICE
‘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,’ the 27-year-old said.
‘I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.’
Asked what it means to wear Team USA gear and the American flag, 27-year-old Hunter Hess said it brought up mixed emotions.
‘It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t,’ Hess said. ‘Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.’
Hess said he felt he was representing friends and family and ‘all the things I believe are good about the US’
In a sign of renewed sensitivities, US officials changed the name of a shared hospitality space for USA Hockey – US Figure Skating and US Speedskating – in Milan from ‘Ice House’ to ‘Winter House.’
Members of the freestyle skiing team said they wanted to support unity and connection.
Fury towards ICE is reaching boiling point after two US citizens were shot and killed last month (Pictured: Federal agents look on after detaining a protestor in Minneapolis)
‘The Olympics represents peace,’ said freestyle star Alex Ferreira. ‘So let’s not only bring world peace, but domestic peace within our country as well, hopefully.’
Nick Goepper, 31, said ‘our country’s been having issues for 250 years.’
‘I’m here to uphold classic American values of respect, opportunity, freedom, and equality and project those to the world,’ he added.
Abby Winterberger, a 15-year-old freestyle skier at her first Olympics, said she was there to honor ‘all the people in the community that brought us all here.’
‘Just representing all the good parts,’ she said.
