American Olympians who slalom like pros on the slopes and perform expert layback spins on the ice are struggling with what it means to represent the U.S. during this political moment.
At press conferences during the Milan Cortina Games in Italy, many Olympic athletes did not mince words when they were asked about the Trump administration’s practices to violently detain immigrants, especially in Minneapolis, where two people were killed by ICE.
“It’s definitely a tough time in our country right now,” said halfpipe skier Svea Irving, according to NPR. Like many of her fellow athletes, Irving described it as separating her own moral code from the one the Trump administration espouses and that gets beamed out to the rest of the world. “I just continue to represent my values,” she added. “Compassion and love and respect for others.”
Mikaela Shiffrin, the top Alpine skier of all time, acknowledged to USA Today the “hardship,” “heartbreak” and “violence” happening all over the world, “which can be tough to reconcile … when you’re also competing for medals in an Olympic event.”
She shared a quote from Nelson Mandela about peace and said at her fourth Winter Olympics that she wants to put her “own values” of “diversity, kindness and sharing” forward.
But perhaps one of the more difficult moments involved figure skater Amber Glenn, who experienced extreme backlash for speaking out for LGBTQ+ rights amid Trump’s efforts to strip funding from and scale back diversity efforts.
Before the Games even started, as she answered a question about how Trump’s drastic stance was affecting her as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she said, “It’s been a hard time for the community overall.”
“It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights,” added Glenn, who finished third in the women’s singles free skate on Sunday. “I think that we are able to support each other in a way that we didn’t have to before, and because of that, it’s made us a lot stronger.”
She hoped to use her platform to encourage others “to stay strong in these hard times.”
But later, Glenn said she was shocked by the volume of nasty comments and death threats she received on social media in the wake of her comments, which prompted her to take a break from social media.
“I couldn’t believe the outlandish backlash I’ve received for just supporting people,” she said, according to The Athletic. “But I’m going to keep speaking my truth. I’m gonna keep representing what I believe in and what I think all Americans believe in, which is freedom and being able to love and do what you want.”