Vice President JD Vance was ripped on social media this week after clips made rounds on the internet showing him scolding Olympians competing at this year’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Vance told reporters earlier this week that he believes U.S. Olympic athletes speaking out on the political climate back home in the U.S. should focus on their sport and not “pop off about politics.”
“Yes, you’re going to have some Olympic athletes who pop off about politics, I feel like that happens every Olympics,” he said. “My advice to them would be to try to bring the country together, and when you’re representing the country you’re representing Democrats and Republicans. You’re there to play a sport. And you’re there to represent your country and hopefully win a medal. You’re not there to pop off about politics.”
“When Olympic athletes enter the political arena, they should expect some pushback,” he continued, before adding: “I think recognize that the way to bring the country together is not to show up in a foreign country and attack the president of the United States, but it’s to play your sport and represent the country well.”
U.S. athletes at the Games have been fielding questions about the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown. American freeskier Hunter Hess said he had “mixed emotions” about representing Team USA.
“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,” he said. “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,” he added.
Like Vance, several other conservatives have criticized American athletes for speaking out against the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Donald Trump even attacked Hess over his remarks, calling him a “real loser” on his Truth Social platform.
“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” the president wrote. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
People on X criticized Vance — who was booed at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Milan last week — by pointing out that athletes have, throughout history, used their platforms to speak out on political issues and to protest injustices.
Rick Burton, emeritus professor of sport management at Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport, emphasized that professional athletes calling attention to political issues is nothing new.
“Sport history is filled with athletes who challenged the status quo,” he told HuffPost. “Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Megan Rapinoe and countless others have spoken up about issues they felt needed addressing.”
Burton, who served as chief marketing officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, said that Vance’s remarks about U.S. Olympians were “unusual but not unprecedented.”
“Other politicians, such as President Richard Nixon, waded into the sports ecosystem, suggesting athletes should not share political opinions different from what the administration wanted projected,” he said.
Overall, Burton said that while Americans have the right to “believe they have a right to free speech,” high profile athletes and entertainers “also recognize that unpopular free speech can generate backlash.”
“Some want to generate the backlash to make a point. Others are surprised that their free speech bothered powerful entities,” he said, before adding:
“It will continue in an age when social media makes communicating with a large audience immediately possible.”
We’ll see how many more athletes continue to speak their minds before the Olympics end on Feb. 22.
