Are these people still representing the USA???
Judging from the comments from multiple athletes at the start of the Winter Olympics in Italy, the Games are at risk of turning into a version of the Grammy Awards that lasts two full weeks.
One U.S. snowboarder named Hunter Hess is already expressing mixed emotions about representing the U.S.
Full article, HERE from Twitchy.
I have to disagree with Eruzione, if ‘I’ were in charge, they would have been on the next airplane back to the USA without any Team USA gear.
You can bet this kid, along with Chris Lillis, and Amber Glenn have ‘benefitted’ from all the free training, coaching, etc. from the USA Olympic Committee, along with all the support of the majority of the US people. And they do this?
They could have learned something from the tennis players in Australia, if they had bothered to listen.
Grrrr…
That’s the problem. Athletes aren’t punished for disrespecting their team, and country. If more were sent home, the rest might get a clue and stop their nonsense.
Sadly representative of the current state of decay.
The Olympics have morphed into a “style show.” It’s a stage where the participants strut, preen, and show off their “fashionable opinions.” Wonderfully marxist, nyet?
I don’t watch the Olympics. Same with other sports especially when they have their athletes play politics. I also gave up watching entertainment that had people in it that were pure Woke Dems or socialists as I do not need to fund them.
Time to pull the funds that we taxpayers give to the USA Olympic organization.
Hear! Hear!
We may agree, disagree, or be neutral on the issues or policies in question, but representing the U.S. does not mean surrendering one’s conscience. The Olympics have never been apolitical—as shown by Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith & John Carlos, and Billie Jean King. Demanding silence from athletes because they received support is a loyalty test we’ve never required in any other profession. Disagreement isn’t disrespect—and punishing speech is far closer to what authoritarian countries do than to what America has ever done, or claims to stand for.
You do make a point.
I graduated from Steamboat Springs High School. Several future Olympic skiers were fellow students. The level of work they put in to reach that level isn’t often recognized.
I don’t want them to surrender their anything. I just want them to have the decency to represent the country whose flag they wear and to voice their criticism on their own time and out of uniform. I’d have put them on the next flight home.
The flag ceremonies should be “interesting” for those who watch.
You surrender your conscience when you take advantage of resources, wear the uniform on your country, and disrespect all the good things it stands for by maligning the political structure. If the environment is so egregious, then leaving the team is the honorable thing to do.
RJW- I see your point, but I think Bob and Jess answered it much more politely than I could have.
Classic case of biting the hand that feeds you.
This is in contrast to the reason the US flag never dips to foreign leaders.
A long time ago, an American of Irish origins was chosen as the flag carrier in the opening ceremonies. And he didn’t dip the flag to the head of state of the country doing the Olympics.
His reason? The flag will dip to no earthly potentates. Now that’s patriotism.
We stopped watching the Olympics when the Woke Agenda took over. So you’re gay, you don’t have to lisp and fawn and catch things on fire, be more like Scott Hamilton, the skater, who though gay doesn’t act like it.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/president-trump-absolutely-torches-spoiled-u-s-olympic/
I appreciate the thoughtful replies, and I understand the instinct behind both Bob’s and Jess’s comments. Where I part company is on the idea that accepting support or wearing the uniform creates an obligation of silence. Historically, Olympic protest has mattered because it occurred in uniform—1968 being the clearest example.
I also don’t think dissent requires withdrawal to be honorable. In most American professions—especially publicly visible ones—we’ve never required people to choose between participation and conscience. That tension has always been part of what “representation” actually means here, even when it makes people uncomfortable.
Actually, I doubt they even have a clue about what they are parroting… Somebody probably fed them lines and told them this was an ‘issue’ they needed to speak to, unlike the Americans at the Australian Open who deferred, simply saying they were there to play tennis, not comment on the USA.
Regarding any celebrity opinion outside their area of alleged expertise:
[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important … so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.
Robert A. Heinlein
You go to another country to represent the US and start pulling this crap they should yank your citizenship immediately. You’re simply stuck wherever you are. Make acceptance of this proviso a requirement to be on the Olympic team.
Kick them off the team on the spot. Let them fly home on their dime.
Remember what “The Dixie Chicks” said about President George W. Bush and where it got them?
It’s what all the kool kids do these days
All- Good points, and yes, Dixie Chicks ‘learned’ the hard way.