Winter Olympic sports have produced that rare breed of athlete/celebrity/influencer that few other sports do. For a few weeks every four years, a group of athletes takes center stage in their sport with millions of Americans watching, and millions more watching around the world.
For a fleeting moment, some of these athletes become household names, and before the snow melts, their names are forgotten. Only a few carve their names and images into Olympic lore and America’s consciousness.
At the same time, because so much sponsorship money floods into all of these sports, these people, who are largely unknown outside of their sports, rake in enough money that if they’re prudent, they could live the rest of their lives without working a job in the real world. Most are not prudent. These pampered athletes usually haven’t worked a real-world job yet. Their training has been their job, and often, their moms and dads and sponsors have bankrolled them, insulating them from the real world up until now.
Gone are the days when ABC’s Jim McKay would do mini-features on the athletes in between events that all seemed to have the same running theme. A young, talented, hard-working, ambitious American with a dream. Willing to do whatever it takes to skate, ski, jump, sled their way to Olympic gold. Working nights, mornings, weekends. Odd jobs while training. Financing themselves. Not their parents, not Red Bull. Just them, maybe a wife or a husband, and pure grit.
It was easy to root for these Americans. They were the best of us, we thought. Even though many didn’t come home with a medal, we were proud of each and every one of them for what and who they represented – their country. Us.
This was on my mind as I watched a freestyle skier named Hunter Hess participate in a press conference about his expectations for these Milan Cortina Olympic games. A reporter asked him a question that every athlete gets asked: “What does it mean to wear Team USA and the American flag?” Only, the reporter added something to shade the response, couching the question against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest and deport illegal aliens. Hess went full valley girl in his tone and words.
“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think…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," Hess said, sounding every bit like you’d expect a freestyle skier from Bend, Ore., to sound.
“If it aligns with my moral values I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing a flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
The 27-year-old first-time Olympian said he does it for his friends, his family, “and the people who supported me getting here.”
Something to know. Just about every one of these athletes had to go through some form of media training prior to taking the stage at the Olympic games. More than likely, in almost all of those media coaching sessions, the athletes rehearsed answers to questions about American political issues, and more specifically, illegal immigration. In other words, it’s doubtful that Hess’s response to this question was off the cuff or spontaneous. This is likely what he wanted to say.
Team USA freestyle skiers say ICE does not represent them: “I feel heartbroken. I think as a country we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights. It brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now.” pic.twitter.com/m0oSNlt2uN
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 7, 2026
Hess made his comments at a press event with fellow Team USA freeski halfpipe athletes. Hess’s teammate Chris Lillis, an “aerials specialist,” wasn’t as blunt, but essentially echoed Hess’s sentiments when he told the press in attendance that he was “heartbroken about what’s happening in the United States.”
Referring to the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) units across the country, the skier said, “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 competing in the Olympics, they realize that's the America that we're trying to represent.”
Going back to that media training, I’m sure that if Lillis received media coaching prior to this, the trainer was of like mind. This can be a real problem in media training, because the trainer is so invested in the issue that he or she can’t envision the serious backlash that these answers will likely unleash.
Here's something that seems lost on these athletes. You have one job to do at these pressers with a very clear objective. You're there to make people want to cheer for you, root for you, and root for who you represent. Nothing else. So when the media asks you about immigration or climate change or the bed you slept in last night, they don't want to know what you really think. You're an Olympic skier, for crying out loud, not the Secretary of State. What they are trying to do is get you to parrot their criticisms of your country. They want you to do their dirty work for them.
On the surface, these responses from Hess and Lillis sound like reasonable and respectful answers, but that’s not what they are. They are verbal grenades the just exploded on them and will likely have at least half of America now rooting for their competition to bury them in the Italian snow.
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They came off as spoiled brats with not nearly the life experience to presume they can lecture the country on issues like illegal immigration and deportation. They came off as people who, understandably, spend the majority of their time training and not really following reliable news sources about what’s actually happening. They came off as people whose worldview has been shaped by woke media, woke friends, woke consultants, and maybe woke family members. That’s one heck of a bubble.
To be sure, freestyle skiers are the winter sports versions of surfer dudes. No one expects them to be Trump voters and wear MAGA hats. But still, you do wear the flag of the U.S. on that uniform. When you compete on your country's behalf, it’s no longer about you. That’s a huge responsibility. Count your words. Be a great athlete. Be respectful of your country and your competition. Never allow any daylight between you and your country while on that world stage. You're an ambassador for America. Don't ever forget that.
Hess is scheduled to compete in the men's freeski halfpipe race at Livigno Snow Park on Thursday, Feb. 19. There’s a lot of time between now and then. By the time he snaps on those skis for the competition, he will have had to spend far too much time with distractions he just created for himself, and that could hinder his performance. Unfortunately for him, there will be no small number of Americans tuning in to root for the other skiers.
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