Shut Up and Ski

David Harsanyi
Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:32:07 -0800
Opinion

Does anyone really believe the international media cares what Olympic snowboarders and curlers think about President Donald Trump's ICE raids, or whatever panic de jour is on the menu this week? Of course not. They want U.S. athletes to bash the American government on the world stage.

Nothing stops athletes from speaking their mind about political issues whenever or wherever they like. Doing it at the Olympics is, at best, in poor form and, at worst, unpatriotic.

Skier Hunter Hess took the bait in Milan, or more likely, couldn't wait to preen for the foreign press, noting that he had "mixed emotions" representing his country. "It's a little hard," he said. "There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't." And just because he's wearing the flag, Hess went on, "doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S."
Updated: Fri Feb 13, 2026

Does anyone really believe the international media cares what Olympic snowboarders and curlers think about President Donald Trump's ICE raids, or whatever panic de jour is on the menu this week? Of course not. They want U.S. athletes to bash the American government on the world stage.

Nothing stops athletes from speaking their mind about political issues whenever or wherever they like. Doing it at the Olympics is, at best, in poor form and, at worst, unpatriotic.

Skier Hunter Hess took the bait in Milan, or more likely, couldn't wait to preen for the foreign press, noting that he had "mixed emotions" representing his country. "It's a little hard," he said. "There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't." And just because he's wearing the flag, Hess went on, "doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S."

Who's happy with everything that goes on in their country? Not a single thinking person, that's who. Olympic athletes go to the games to transcend these differences and represent national ideals and aspirations, not whine about political parties that happen to be in charge. U.S. athletes shouldn't be stooges for foreigners. Go off on politics when you get home.

Of course, not one American in Beijing in 2022 was asked what they thought about the Biden administration's online censorship. Not that we should have wanted to hear about that, either. And not one French, Swedish, Danish or German athlete will ever be asked if they feel qualms about representing countries that deport illegal immigrants.

The subtext of the queries in Milan, and Hess' answer, rests on an assumption that something especially nefarious is going on in the United States, which deserves rebuke; something worse, apparently, than goes on in any other country participating in the games.

This outlook, as anyone who understands anything about the world knows, is lunacy. China, incidentally, sent a delegation of 286 people to the Winter Olympics in Milan. One of them is freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who, Google's AI — apparently translating text from the original Chicom propaganda — tells me "is competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, aiming to inspire a new generation of Chinese skiers, specifically girls, while balancing her Chinese heritage and American upbringing."

The only notable "heritage" of the one-party communist state, which doesn't represent the will of the Chinese people, is that it's in contention for being the most murderous regime in history. Yet the media's effusive coverage of Gu's performance, poise and overall decency is something to behold. Reuters ran a three-person bylined piece of Gu discussing her "rediscovering joy in skiing, navigating rising competition and reframing her relationship with fear." Gu, in an interview with the official Olympic site, "talks pressure, the haters, and inspiring young girls after a life-changing Beijing 2022."

The Chinese government also reportedly spent around $6.64 million on Gu and fellow U.S.-born athlete Zhu Yi. So that's a perk, for sure.

Couldn't Gu, worth somewhere north of $23 million, inspire Chinese girls in the United States rather than under the flag of a tyranny? Or how about representing Taiwan? Americans with dual citizenship who are unable to make the United States squads will occasionally compete for other nations. Even then, they rarely join tyrannies and geopolitical foes. It's one thing to buy cheap stuff from communist China and quite another to wear its flag.

Anyway, Gu is in no position to lecture anyone about decency.

As others have pointed out, reporters, deeply concerned about the ability of Americans to represent their flawed nation, have yet to ask Gu about the plight of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai, recently sentenced to 20 years for exercising his right to free expression. There has been nothing on the 50 or so journalists being held in prison. Gu has criticized Trump, but offers nothing but praise for a regime that throws women into concentration camps where they are systemically raped and used as forced labor?

Maybe Hess can think about that the next time he's ripping the United States abroad.