Some of America's Olympic Athletes Are Apparently Ashamed of Their Fellow Citizens. Well, It's Mutual.
I regret to inform you that the rich and famous are at it again.
American Olympic athletes have taken to distancing themselves from the country that gave them everything. Asked by journalists at press conferences how it feels to be competing under the Stars and Stripes, they spoke their mind. Apparently, it feels bad. Apparently, they aren’t at the Olympics representing their country but representing themselves.
Here’s skier Hunter Hess responding to a reporter's question to the American freestyle skiing team about "what it means to wear Team USA and the American flag in the hopes of trying to bring some unity" to his home country:
“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. 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. 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. I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.”
Can you even imagine being given the greatest privilege on earth—being born an American—and having the opportunity to represent that country on the world stage due to the amazing gift of being supported by our natural and other resources to develop your own God-given talents, then turning around at the first opportunity and smearing your country on the world stage?
It’s despicable.
Note also the unbelievable narcissism of playing on a national team and insisting that it’s your own values and your own self you’re representing, and it’s only your friends and family you think you’re standing for.
The self regard is just staggering. But Hess was far from the only one.
Hess’s teammate, freestyle skier Chris Lillis, said he’s “heartbroken” about what is happening in the U.S. between ICE and the protests.
“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 compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”
U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn made the ridiculous claim that the LGBTQ+ community has had a hard time during the Trump administration—which incidentally includes the highest ranking out gays in American history.
Svea Irving claimed it’s a “definitely tough time in our country right now” and like Hess, insisted that she is there to represent herself and her values.
Skier Mikaela Shifrin also wants to represent her own values at this year’s Olympics. Asked how she feels representing the U.S. at the Olympics despite the political tensions in the country, she said, “I think there’s a lot of hardship in the world globally, and there’s a lot of heartbreak. There’s a lot of violence. It can be tough to reconcile that when you’re also competing for medals at an Olympic event.”
She then pulled out a prepared statement referencing Nelson Mandela, in which she, too, said, “I’m really hoping to show up and represent my own values—values of inclusivity, values of diversity and kindness and sharing, tenacity, work ethic, showing up with my team every single day… I’m hoping to represent those who have been supporting me.”
Me me me me me me me!
It’s not just the narcissism, though, that rankled so many. It’s the entitlement of denouncing the country that gave them these opportunities. The only reason anyone knows their names, the only reason they have this platform and this stage, the only reason a reporter is asking them these questions is because these athletes had the unbelievable good fortune of being born American—something most of them probably would not give up for anything (Eileen Gu’s enormous betrayal of her country deserves its own post).
None of this is to say that they don’t have the right to voice their opinions. They do, of course—ironically because they are Americans, thanks to the glorious First Amendment. It’s the same thing that gives us right to point out how despicable their commentary has been.
Now, it would be one thing if America was, say, Apartheid South Africa, actually oppressing its own citizens. It would be one thing if America was China and it was actually imprisoning and enslaving millions of citizens due to their ethnicity and religion as China does the Uyghur Muslims. (Has any reporter asked Eileen Gu what it’s like representing China?)
But these athletes are “heartbroken” and “devastated” to be representing a country that is carrying out policy that the majority of their fellow citizens voted for.
Contrary to the “ICE Out” preferences of the elites on the Left in Hollywood, at the Olympics, at the Grammy’s, and among the yoga moms of Minneapolis, the clear majority of Americans still favor deporting every illegal alien in the country. Not just the worst of the worst—but every single one.
That’s what three new polls found at the end of January, even after the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti:
A new Harvard/Harris poll found that 52% of Americans support deporting all illegal aliens.
A new Marquette poll found that 56% of Americans support deporting all illegal aliens.
A new Cygnal poll found that a whopping 61% of Americans support deporting all illegal aliens.
There is also some pushback to ICE, it’s true, and President Trump’s approval on immigration has slipped. But the Harvard/Harris poll found that his strongest issue was his response to the protests in Minneapolis!
It’s not because they are racists, as the Left would have you believe, that Americans support mass deportations; it’s because they are sick of being robbed of the American Dream, whether it’s in the form of wage theft or housing and healthcare competition or illegal aliens killing their family members. It’s because what makes us a country is having a national border and respect for the rule of law, and you can’t have those things if there are zero consequences for breaking law, for entering illegally, for overstaying visas, and for fake asylum claims. And the majority still support ICE doing the hard job of carrying out deportations, because contrary to what the elites might tell you, you can’t just nicely ask illegal aliens to kindly leave and expect them all to. Someone has to go get them.
Of course, the elites have only benefited from mass migration. They love the access to cheap labor, which is why they always bemoan the deportation of nannies and Home Depot day laborers.
But for working-class Americans, for American nannies and construction workers and truckers, mass migration has been an unbelievable hardship.
That’s why, despite everything that’s happened, despite all the protests and all the messaging from the far Left, the majority of Americans still support mass deportations, as they did in November of 2024 when they voted decisively for Donald Trump.
In other words, it’s American democracy working that these snot nosed athletes are saying is “not my values.” It’s their fellow citizens that they are distancing themselves from, that they find it unbearable to compete for.
They have every right to say it. And we have every right to condemn them for it.
Naturally, Hess et al are being embraced by the liberal media and Democrats and other leftists who love to see the U.S. taken down a notch overseas and always seem to be rooting for those doing so, whether it’s Europeans, Olympic athletes, or even our adversaries.
If you can’t represent your country with pride because you’re too ashamed of your fellow citizens, those you condemn to struggle with the consequences of your pieties, maybe stay home next time and let someone compete who’s proud to be from the greatest country on earth—the actual country, rather than some liberal fantasy of it.
If some of America’s Olympic athletes are ashamed of their fellow citizens, well, it’s mutual.
These athletes are honestly pissing me off, but I also think they’re being baited by European media who, by the way, never ever portrays Trump in a good light and is mad that we’re making them pull their own weight, but I digress.
It would have been a great idea for Team USA officials to have a media handling event and tell athletes that it’s perfectly ok to say ‘I have my opinions on events in my country, but I’m here to compete and I’d like to talk about that.’ Many of these athletes are young, kind of dumb, and sheltered. It’s their fault what comes out of their mouths, of course, but some guidelines might have saved some of these obnoxious statements.
Batya how do you do it? It's like you have a VPN straight wired to my mind. Then you write a piece so eloquently with the hard points thumbtacked dead center. You get to the core- narcissists. I could not pull the curtain back in my own mind to expose what it really boils down to, narcissistic youth. Brains boiled by elites.
Then you hit upon a point which has plagued me: why do reporters feel license to question American athletes and yet don't pose those same questions to anyone else or any other competitor. Ugh.