MILAN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. athletes in Milan are bracing for what could be a chilly Winter Games reception as political unrest at home over federal immigration enforcement spills into host country and fuels protests against the policies of the Trump administration.
Critics in Italy have rallied against the planned role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel at the Games, a flashpoint amplified by a global backlash to controversial federal immigration operations and the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
The outrage has reached the Winter Olympics, where hundreds of Italians protested the involvement of ICE staff supporting the U.S. delegation with a hard-left trade union planning an “ICE OUT” protest during Friday’s Opening Ceremony.
Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, who grew up in Minnesota and who has family and friends there, told reporters her “heart is incredibly heavy” after the shootings, which led to widespread protests in the U.S. last weekend.
“I realise the magnitude of the position that I’m in right now,” she said.
“And I think the best thing I can do is to do exactly what I said. Stand tall and have hope. And show the world what America is, who we are as people. Because we are more than what’s happening right now.
“I always do my best to make our country proud. And I hope I can do that in these Games.”
Italy’s interior minister dismissed political outrage over ICE’s presence on Tuesday, insisting the concerns were baseless and reiterating that agents would not be conducting any policing on Italian streets.
But ICE and Border Patrol enforcement actions in the U.S. have left a stain on the American image abroad as one of the world’s largest, richest and most successful delegations reckons with a frosty reception at the Winter Games.
Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who helped the U.S. to team sprint gold at Pyeongchang 2018, said she was racing for “an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others.
“For everyone out there caring for others, protecting their neighbours and meeting people with love – every single step is for you,” Diggins, who picked up a pair of individual medals in Beijing, wrote in an Instagram post.
FREE TO SPEAK
U.S. ski and snowboard athletes are free to speak their minds and have received media training to help them navigate complicated political issues, said Sophie Goldschmidt, President and CEO of the sport’s national governing body.
“The image abroad is complex right now,” Goldschmidt told Reuters.
“We know they can sometimes get put in difficult situations and we just want them to be prepared for that. They don’t want to have to answer questions that they’re not comfortable answering or have things misrepresented.”
The U.S. has played the hero in some of the Games’ most memorable moments, including one of the great underdog triumphs when they beat their Soviet powerhouse hockey rivals in 1980’s “Miracle on Ice.”
Forty-five years later, those same players stood next to Donald Trump, grinning ear-to-ear in classic American cowboy hats, as the president signed a bill to award them congressional medals in a December reception.
Trump, who was on the receiving end of boos as he attended sports mega-events including the Super Bowl, U.S. Open tennis and soccer’s Club World Cup – is not expected to attend the Games, sending his Vice President JD Vance instead.
Megan Keller, playing defence for America’s hockey team in her third Games, said the team had not discussed the turmoil in their home nation or the image the U.S. projects abroad.
“The powerful thing about sport in the Olympics is it’s everybody uniting together,” she told reporters.
“It’s an honour for us to represent not only our country but our family, our friends.”
U.S. officials changed the name of a shared hospitality space for USA Hockey, U.S. Figure Skating and U.S. Speedskating, from “Ice House” to “Winter House,” a sign of renewed sensitivities ahead of the Olympics.
Freestyle skier Tess Johnson said she had given a lot of thought to what it meant to represent the U.S. at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
“That self-reflection is really important given all of the things that have been going on back home,” she said.
“I am a huge proponent of what the Olympic and Paralympic movement stands for, which is connection, respect, unity, love, compassion, and I think actions and conversations around those words are very meaningful.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery and Rory Carroll in Milan, additional reporting by Philip O’Connor in Anterselva and Lisa Richwine in Livigno; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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