God & Country at the Olympics

The last day of the 2026 Olympics Games in Milan coincided with the first Sunday of Lent. Both are aspirational — one to showcase athletic prowess on the field of competition, the other, more private, to forge a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Much has been made in the last two weeks of the behavior of American athletes in Milan, and much of the controversy was stirred by NBC, which bought the broadcasting rights for $3 billion and pounded the drum against the Orange Man.

That is a slight exaggeration but not by much.

Ever since 2016, when NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem, sports reporters have outdone themselves in showcasing their woke credentials. Once, these journalists asked athletes about their training or strategy for a competition. Now, they ask them about their political worldview.

No wonder Jeff Bezos is cashiering the entire sports department of the Washington Post. I am old enough to remember when the WashPost was so devoted to delivering sports news that they ran all the scores of all the local teams in really tiny print. You might need glasses, but you could find out how your high school team fared that week.

That is no longer the mission. Now they are dedicated to a litmus test of political correctness, basically: How much do you hate Donald J. Trump? It’s hard to think of another country whose reporters, covering athletes on the international stage of the Olympics, routinely invite them to diss on the country whose flag they wear on their uniforms. One reporter, for instance, asked the athletes how they felt about representing the U.S. at a time when the country is “riven by deep political divides.”

Some US athletes were happy to oblige.

Free-style skier Hunter Hess, at a press conference, said he has “mixed emotions” representing the USA because of ICE. “I’m representing my friends and family,” he said, adding he supports America when “the country aligns with my moral values.” That kind of moral relativism did not sit well with President Trump, who called Hess “a loser.” I will defend Hess’ First Amendment right to express his opinions. But at a premier international sports event like the Olympics, why was he asked?

So was figure skater Amber Glenn, who describes herself as a “pansexual,” and said LGBT people are “not safe in Trump’s America.” Actually, as Megyn Kelly pointed out, lesbians, gays and bisexuals are perfectly safe. It’s the trans community that has been discredited for corrupting and mutilating children. Glenn finished 5th. Later she blamed the fact that she had her period, decidedly a female issue.

Much was made in social media about the stark contrast between Eileen Gu and Alysa Liu, two Chinese-American athletes with disparate views on competing for the USA.

A native of San Francisco and a student at Stanford University, Gu has known every advantage that America confers on young people of talent. But when it came time for skiing, she decided to compete for America’s arch-enemy, communist China. She took their sponsoring money, ignoring China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghurs, which world human rights organizations have described as genocide.

Enos Kanter Freedom, the former NBA player who defected from Turkey and became an American citizen and human rights activist, called Gu “a traitor.” So did Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “America was great to her. She sold out to China,” he told Fox. On the last day of competition, she won gold.

Alysa Liu, whose father escaped from China, a political refugee after the Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters, danced with an abundance of joy and won the gold medal, the first for the US in more than two decades. In the stands, her father clutched the American flag.

Behind the joy in her performance was high-stakes drama.

In the years before the Milan Olympics, the Chinese government tried to stalk Alysa and her father on U.S. soil, to ​Intimidate her into silence, to pressure her to turn her back on the country that gave her family refuge. ​The FBI had to give them 24/7 security just so she could compete. She walked away from the sport for two years to find her purpose again—and then she came back to win.

I doubt the Lius are MAGA supporters. But they behaved on this international stage as patriots. That is all anyone watching at home expects. Pride of country.

Throughout Team USA were other stories of glory and patriotism.

Megan Kellar scored the winning goal in the penultimate women’s hockey game. She said: “It’s an honor to represent our country and wear USA across our chests.” The women’s hockey team singing the National Anthem was off-key, and heart-felt. Everyone, left or right, had to be cheering their upset over Canada.

Men’s hockey player Quinn Hughes, who had the winning shot in the playoff game against Sweden, said later, “I love the US, and it’s the greatest country in the world.” His brother Jack, who lost several teeth after a high hit in the mouth by a stick, echoed the same sentiments. “This is all about our country right now,” an emotional Hughes said seconds after his goal, the blood still staining his lips. “I'm so proud to be American right now. I love my country, I love my teammates.”

It’s not that America lacks young patriots proud to wear the USA uniform. It’s not even that God is absent from their training. It’s that sports reporters insist on asking them what they hate about America. Maybe that’s why they call them the fake media.