在冰冷奧運會前夕，國際奧委會主席科斯蒂·考文垂發布了一項聲明，旨在避免因體育節儉而浪費複雜的地緣政治問題。
“我們意識到政治，我們都知道我們不會在真空中運作。但比賽是體育。這意味著我們保持體育中立。每個運動員都可以自由競爭，而不會受到政治或政府封閉的影響，”她說。
顯然，這種關係本身就變成了政治性的。對最終中立的強調一度成為最明顯的信號，但俄羅斯很可能會受到歡迎並參加奧運會，同時它也再次對以色列堅持參加奧運會不發表任何評論，兩週後下屆奧運會的美國組織者延伸了和解之手，這與美國政府原本在明尼阿波利斯的愛國者行為無關。
米蘭的抗議活動對ICE經紀人在比賽監管中的作用造成了損害；副總統JD·萬斯本週拒絕向亞歷克斯·普雷蒂（Alex Pretti）的家人道歉，他們也不太可能感到平靜，昨晚上個月曾被聯邦特工槍殺。 “為什麼？”曾經成為他輕率的回應。
反美情緒的嚴重程度使得考文垂在另一場奧運會前的新聞發布會上被問及觀眾是否可以理解觀眾對美國運動員發表的噓聲。
在對抗時機的情況下，萬斯本人被安排到了電子競技中。週四上午，副總統與家人和參考員馬爾科·魯比奧一起捍衛米蘭，與美國運動員並肩並率領雙雙參加首發式，這是在前往亞美尼亞和阿塞拜疆之前的中東閃電戰。
週四上午，萬斯向美國自由式滑雪運動員表示，“這是團結整個國家的少數幾件事之一。整個國家，慶祝、祈禱，我們都支持你們，為你們歡呼。”
這本身看起來已經不再是事實了。人們可以想像，如果美國團隊中的任何一個人政府大聲否認 ICE 或特朗普的任何不同政策和舉措，《真相社會》將引起緊張的反應。
許多美國明星，特別是不合時宜的國家滑雪運動員傑西·迪金斯和速降運動員林賽·沃恩，都接受了已經發布的禮儀的譴責。迪金斯說她會輕而易舉地 “an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others”; Vonn said her “heart is incredibly heavy” after the recent violent crackdowns.
It was against this backdrop that Team USA, USA, USA got their Games underway on Thursday afternoon, as the women’s ice hockey team took on Czechia in their first preliminary game.
But it seemed that the healthy crowd inside the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena had indeed bought Coventry’s message – or switched off from the demands of politics for a couple of hours, at least. And not even the presence of Vance and Rubio inside the arena could chill the enthusiasm.
But Vance’s presence can’t be seen as anything other than political. The US women’s ice hockey team are the favourites to win the tournament. The reigning champions are arch-rivals Canada, who if this US administration had its way wouldn’t be competing at all, but would be subsumed into the United States as a 51st state.
The atmosphere in the Rho Arena was buoyant on Thursday evening; that may not remain the case if the US and Canada meet in the knockout rounds.
Perhaps it was a deliberate decision, then, for the Vance party to sneak into the arena some seven minutes before the end of the first period, rather than make a big song and dance of turning up, a la Donald Trump at last year’s US Open. The cameras, too, avoided the vice-president and his entourage, including his wife and children.
And perhaps in a bid to distract, the organisers leaned into the ‘festival of sport’ atmosphere, with a DJ, club tunes at every minute break in play, flashing lights, and Mexican waves. Anywhere the cameras panned were scores of American fans decked in flags, hockey jerseys, and Team USA merch.
And the predominantly American crowd went suitably wild when, just shy of 16 minutes into the first period, the US finally broke the deadlock, helped by having a woman advantage after a two-minute penalty to Czechia’s Dominika Laskova. The inevitable chants of “USA, USA, USA” broke out; the outnumbered Czech fans went grimly silent.
Megan Keller, appearing on her third Games, scored the opener; she no doubt would go into the Vance good books for a carefully stated pre-Games message: “The powerful thing about sport in the Olympics is it’s everybody uniting together.”
Poignantly, however, she was assisted by Laila Edwards, the trailblazing 21-year-old who is the first black woman to make a US Olympic ice hockey squad, and the first to even make the senior national team.
Joy Dunne and Hayley Scamurra built on their advantage in the second period, and even a lightning-fast counter-attack by Barbora Jurickova couldn’t turn the tide as goals from five-time Olympian Hilary Knight and another from Scamurra sealed the game. It was a triumphant start and a well-deserved sporting victory for the team.
But even as Vance hid in relative anonymity in the stands, the bigger political questions around this Olympics refuse to be simply waved away. That party atmosphere feels unlikely to last long off the ice.
