F**k ICE, boos for JD Vance and jeers for Israel – this is the divided Olympics ...Middle East

SAN SIRO — An Olympic Games without politics? A contradiction in terms. And a total impossibility.

Politicians in particular seem desperate to cleanse the Games of its intrinsic nature, despite their very presence doing the opposite.

In fairness, the US vice-president JD Vance did at least provide one major unifying moment of Friday’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan, as he was booed loudly when appearing on the big screen.

Doubtless it was not what he expected after issuing a rallying cry of unity to the USA ice hockey team on Thursday, telling them: “Democrat, Republican, Independent – we’re all rooting for you.” At the San Siro, it felt like American, Italian, Columbian, Mexican – we’re all rooting against you, JD.

There had been jeers and whistles for the Israeli flag-bearer Mariia Seniuk too, flanked by two other athletes and followed by one very burly, masked man who certainly wasn’t a figure skater – although he did keep pirouetting to check every possible threat, a reminder that this apolitical event is anything but.

Earlier in the week, British skier Gus Kenworthy had posted “f**k ice”, apparently urinated into the snow, to his 1.2 million Instagram followers, an apparent violation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban on political messages.

But the US-based freestyler will escape sanction because he created the image before he arrived at the Olympic Games.

A whole host of Team USA athletes have more diplomatically, but just as unequivocally, condemned the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and vowed to show off the best of what it means to be American. As athletes in a niche sport, they know rarely will so many ever listen to what they have to say.

And that is the great contradiction of an apolitical Olympic Games. Politicians are desperate to attach themselves to successful Olympians, because the eyeballs and optics are unparalleled, a time when they can become more than a party rosette with legs. The public are smarter than that though, and see through the paper-thin passion for sporting endeavour to the cynical core.

The protests earlier in the day had been less about Vance’s presence and more about that of ICE agents, “the militia that kills” as they were dubbed by the mayor of Milan.

Even though Italy is a country with a populist prime minister who has solidified her position with strong anti-immigration policy, the actions of ICE and their defender-in-chief Vance transgress what it means to be human. They go beyond politics.

Kirsty Coventry, the new IOC president overseeing her first Olympic Games, knows a bit about politics. Before winning an incredibly close election to succeed Thomas Bach, she served in a Zimbabwean government run by Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose election in 2023 was deemed not to be free and fair by international observers.

Coventry rejected criticism of taking her seat in the cabinet by claiming “I don’t think you can stand on the sidelines and scream and shout for change”. It’s not clear what change she achieved by joining the government – free and fair elections have not been held since – other than improving her own circumstances by getting the IOC gig.

Coventry has already signalled her openness to getting Russian and Belarusian athletes back into the Olympic Games as part of her “apolitical” agenda.

Vladimir Putin of course attended this event four years ago, returning to Russia having bolstered ties with his ally Xi Jinping, knowing full well he would need them. Only three weeks later, he began the bloody, illegal invasion of Ukraine that has claimed so many innocent lives.

When those decked in yellow and blue entered the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, there was a roar of approval that would have echoed loudly across the battlefields of Crimea, Donbas and beyond, where a brutal winter and some of the worst shelling yet is battering those athletes’ compatriots. You hope Kirsty Coventry was listening.

“Armonia” was the theme of the opening ceremony, the Greek word for union, connection or agreement. In truth, the Olympics has rarely felt less unified, connected or agreed. But there is always hope, however faint.

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