Some U.S. Olympians are speaking out after Minneapolis killings
- - Some U.S. Olympians are speaking out after Minneapolis killings
Doha MadaniFebruary 1, 2026 at 10:50 PM
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Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins; Minnesota Frost star Kelly Pannek. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)
The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal authorities in Minneapolis last month have drawn condemnation from politicians, influencers and celebrities — and increasingly from athletes who will soon be representing the U.S. at the Olympics.
Emotions have been running high in Minnesota, where the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has permeated nearly every aspect of daily life amid weeks of protest and confrontations with federal authorities, and they were on display last Sunday during a Professional Women’s Hockey League game in St. Paul as fans chanted “ICE out now.”
At a postgame press conference, Minnesota Frost stars Kelly Pannek and Taylor Heise, both members of the U.S. Olympic squad, said it was important to acknowledge what was happening in their own community.
“It’s obviously really heavy,” said Pannek, who appeared to be overcome with emotion. “I think people have been asking a lot of us what it’s like to represent our state and our country. I think what I’m most proud to represent is the thousands — tens of thousands — of people who show up on some of the coldest days of the year to stand and fight for what they believe in.”
Heise added that the team has done a good job of making everyone feel welcome and safe during its games, “even though you can’t feel safe, I feel like, in this time and place here in Minnesota.”
Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins also acknowledged the situation last week after her final competition before the 2026 Winter Olympics. Diggins, who won gold in 2018, wrote in an Instagram post that she hoped she was able to bring some joy to people watching and honor all those back home protecting their neighbors.
“Honestly, this week was mentally and emotionally stressful for me for many different reasons, all of which were outside of sport,” Diggins wrote on Jan. 25, the day after Pretti’s killing. “Primarily, it’s been devastating following the news of what has been happening in Minnesota right now and it’s really hard feeling like I can do nothing about it.”
Diggins, Pannek and Heise are three of the 24 athletes from Minnesota who will represent the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Games. But they are not the only Olympians who have spoken out.
Figure skater Alysa Liu, who is from California, has been sharing posts to her Instagram Stories this week about the deaths of Pretti and Good. She also shared a post on Thursday urging people to call their representatives in Congress to oppose the current funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees immigration enforcement.
It’s unclear whether more Olympians will speak out on the world stage in the coming weeks, especially following news that the U.S. will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Italy to assist with security.
In a video that’s been viewed more than 500,000 times on TikTok and another 60,000 on Instagram, Coach Jackie J, a popular content creator who focuses on sports, urged athletes to use their platform at the Olympics to “speak up” against a government “going after its own people,” describing it as not only an opportunity but a “responsibility.”
“Let everyone know that you’re not representing this government, you’re not representing what it’s doing, you’re representing the people,” she said.
The International Olympic Committee noted that all athletes have the ability to express their views but that there are restrictions in place to maintain the neutrality of the Games overall.
Athletes can’t make political statements during competition or official events, such as a medal ceremony or the opening or closing ceremonies. They are also not allowed to speak out inside the Olympic village. The IOC said these rules have been in place since the Tokyo Games and were made in consultation with the IOC Athletes’ Commission.
The Olympics have been a venue for political expression for more than a century, with the first modern podium protest taking place in 1906 by Irish track athlete Peter O’Connor. After winning the silver medal in the long jump, O’Connor scaled the flagpole to replace a British flag with an Irish nationalist banner in protest of having to compete as a British athlete before Ireland gained its independence.
The 1906 Intercalated Games were considered Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee at the time, but the IOC no longer recognizes the event or its medals.
One of the most well-known protests to Americans happened at the 1968 Summer Olympics, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists and bowed their heads in a Black Power salute to protest racial discrimination. Smith and Carlos, U.S. track stars, had just won first and third place in the 200-meter race.
Extending gloved hands skyward in racial protest, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze medal in the 200-meter run at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City on Oct. 16, 1968. (AP file) (AP file)
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York, said that at first the big news was that Smith had broken a world record, but the protest made headlines only after the U.S. Olympic Committee removed their Olympic credentials following pressure from the International Olympic Committee.
“Doing that sort of created a bigger spectacle than had already happened,” Bass said. “And so they kept their medals and they were sent home.”
Their protest was part of a larger movement by a collective of Black athletes, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, who had threatened to boycott the Olympic Games if a set of civil rights demands were not met, according to Bass. But the group failed to find consensus, which led Smith and Carlos to the now famous moment in Mexico City.
Athletes don’t leave their lived experiences or belief systems behind the moment they step into a competition, Bass said, and the platforms they’ve worked hard to build are theirs to use as they see fit.
“The Olympics are inherently political, because one enters the Olympics under a flag which represents some form of nation state,” Bass said. “So there’s nothing apolitical about the Olympic Games, and there never has been. There’s nothing apolitical about sport, and there never has been.”
The 1968 protest led to Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter banning demonstrations at the podium and during specific events.
There are big and small ways athletes can signal their own views.
Bass noted that just before the 2018 Winter Olympics, skier Lindsey Vonn told CNN that she would not visit the White House if she won a gold medal, in a statement against President Donald Trump. At the Tokyo Games a few years later, the U.S. women’s national soccer team took a knee before they took the field, a protest against racial injustice.
It’s up to individual athletes to decide what role they want to play in a larger collective action, something that is a lot to consider, Bass added.
“The ancient Greeks created the Olympics for this reason — to put down swords and see what peace felt like, so that if we ever achieve it, we’ll know when it arrives,” Bass said. “But the world doesn’t stop being the world just because they’re skiers on the hill.”
Source: “AOL Sports”
