Olympians Shouldn’t Apologize For America

[ad_1] It's maybe inevitable {that a} main international occasion such because the Olympic Video games will develop into politicized. From the Nazi appropriation of the 1936 Berlin Video games to the lengthy Chilly Conflict rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union, competitors has at all times taken on what Al Michaels as soon as known as a “nationalistic sense.” However on the 2026 Milan Cortina Video games occurring now, the media have pushed issues to a complete new stage. Journalists appear intent on turning Olympians into politicians.

The actual flashpoint was an interview with Workforce USA skier Hunter Hess. Throughout a press convention, he was goaded into expressing his private disagreements with sure Trump administration insurance policies. “Simply because I’m sporting the flag doesn’t imply I symbolize all the things that’s happening within the U.S.,” he stated. President Donald Trump himself shot again, calling Hess a “actual loser.” The entire thing has become a media circus, distracting from the excellence all Workforce USA athletes have been pursuing.

To some extent, the media’s agenda right here is fairly easy; politicization and incendiary headlines drive clicks and social media views. However there's additionally an actual double commonplace that should outrage all Olympics followers and Americans. Eileen Gu, a freestyle skier born and educated in the USA however competing for the Individuals’s Republic of China, has largely escaped questions concerning the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s totalitarian atrocities. NBC, which broadcasts the Olympics in the USA, has even tried making Gu right into a star. The In the present day present didn't ask her concerning the persecution of Jimmy Lai or the genocide of the Uyghur individuals, even whereas NBC has coated statements American athletes have made about U.S. immigration coverage or social points.

In contrast to China, the U.S. authorities doesn't pay our athletes. The US Olympic Committee is a federally chartered nonprofit and funded fully by non-public sources. American Olympians might obtain company sponsorships, however placing on the crimson, white, and blue and competing for our individuals is a sacrifice in a manner that isn't the case for different international locations. These athletes should not hirelings; they discover a option to flip the pursuit of private excellence into an act of real patriotism. Authoritarian regimes can attempt shopping for themselves medals by recruiting mercenaries reminiscent of Gu, however they are going to by no means be capable to buy that real Olympic spirit.

There have been loads of inspiring tales about American athletes at these video games, however none supplies a starker distinction with Gu than Workforce USA determine skater Alysa Liu. She was a star as a teen, however she retired on the age of 16 to deal with dwelling a standard life. Liu made a triumphant return to the world of determine skating in 2024, and she or he usually explains that her sport has develop into a form of artwork. Already a gold medalist within the crew occasion, Liu is at present positioned to medal once more within the particular person competitors. Her skating is remarkably stunning, a real surprise to behold.

Equally fascinating, although, is the political backdrop of Liu’s younger profession. Like Gu, she is the daughter of a Chinese language immigrant to the USA. However not like the skier, her household holds no illusions concerning the CCP’s tyranny. Liu’s father Arthur was deeply concerned with the Chinese language Democracy Motion within the Nineteen Eighties, becoming a member of the protests at Tiananmen Sq. and witnessing the next bloodbath firsthand. He has at all times been a vocal critic of the communist regime and is, in no unsure phrases, a political refugee.

The CCP initially tried recruiting Liu to skate for it beneath the identical “naturalization program” that sponsored Gu’s defection. Given her household’s firsthand expertise of communist oppression, although, she understandably rebuffed the hassle. The CCP, nevertheless, wouldn't take no for a solution. In 2022, the Division of Justice charged Chinese language brokers with conducting an intimidation marketing campaign towards the Liu household and different Chinese language Individuals important of the regime. Apparently, one spy even pretended to be a USOC official to steal data from the Lius. The State Division even needed to take particular precautions to guard Alysa Liu when she competed within the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Maybe probably the most American a part of the story, although, is that Liu has used her huge platform as a determine skating star to shine the sunshine on her father’s sacrifices and the struggle for human rights. “Truthfully I might simply have the principle focus be my dad’s story as a result of his story is so cool and in addition all the things … occurred due to what he did,” she stated at a media summit in 2025 . “So, like I really feel like we obtained to start out with the roots.”

“We symbolize the individuals,” she stated in one other interview when requested about patriotism on the video games. Liu is just 20 years outdated, however already she understands that the flag she competes beneath means one thing greater than nationalistic satisfaction; it symbolizes the hope of freedom for tens of millions worldwide.

Authoritarian regimes in locations reminiscent of China, Iran, and Russia have at all times sought to make use of the Olympic Video games to advertise their ideologies, and the business media are all too prepared to show a blind eye and even develop into complicit. However tales reminiscent of Liu’s, and people of different patriotic American athletes, exhibit in no unsure phrases how incompatible that purpose is with the true Olympic spirit. The liberty American athletes get pleasure from — even to criticize their very own nation — is in truth the explanation why we persistently embody such excellence on the video games. And that’s nothing to apologize for.

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Michael Lucchese is the founding father of Pipe Creek Consulting , an affiliate editor of Regulation & Liberty , and a contributing editor to Windfall .