JD VANCE BOOED AT WINTER OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY AS FURORE OVER ICE ESCALATES
JD Vance, the US vice-president, was booed by spectators at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Italy.
With the American athletes largely cheered as they made their way into Milan’s San Siro, a significant portion of the crowd made their feelings known when the big screen inside the stadium briefly switched to Vance applauding the team and waving the US flag.
The vice-president has been accompanied in Italy by a unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, prompting protests in Milan that included a march attended by hundreds on Friday morning in Leonardo da Vinci plaza. A group displayed “ICE out” placards, blew whistles and shouted “We don’t want ICE in our city!” as they marched under drifting clouds of pink smoke.
It has been stressed that the ICE officers accompanying Vance and his family in Italy are from Homeland Security Investigations; a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes rather than the domestic immigration crackdown.
Vance, who has been outspoken in his criticism of European governments over the past year, was seated with his wife Usha just a few seats away from Thomas Bach, the former president of the International Olympic Committee.
Some US athletes have appeared to distance themselves from the policies of the US administration since arriving in Italy. Asked on Friday what it means to wear Team USA kit and the American flag, freestyle skier Hunter Hess said: “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.
“Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”
Hess said he felt he was representing friends and family and “all the things I believe are good about the US”.
It has also emerged that US officials have changed the name of a shared hospitality space for US athletes in Milan from “Ice House” to “Winter House”.
”The Olympics represents peace,” Alex Ferreira, the freestyle skier, said. “So let’s not only bring world peace, but domestic peace within our country as well, hopefully.”
Donald Trump, the US president, has separately upset much of Europe in recent weeks with his threats to annex Greenland from Denmark.
A small group of protesters had earlier also gathered in Milan’s Leonardo da Vinci piazza holding Palestine flags and a large white banner. The protest, organised by Amazon unionist Chris Smalls, was over the participation of Israel’s 10-strong team at the Games.
The Israel team also attracted a smattering of boos and whistles when they were introduced into the San Siro at the opening ceremony. Aside from hosts Italy, the largest cheer of the night was for the Ukrainian team.
Team GB skier urinates ‘F--- ICE’ in snow
Earlier on Friday, a Team GB athlete has launched a stinging attack on the ICE agency ahead of the opening ceremony at the Winter Games, urinating the words “F--- ICE” into the snow.
Gus Kenworthy, a British-American model and actor, who has come out of retirement to appear for Team GB in freestyle skiing, posted the message on his Instagram account on Wednesday before confirming his methodology with a follow-up message. “My last post was pee so it only felt appropriate to follow it up with a lil’ dump... of photos from January. Yes, I’m a child,” he told his 1.2 million followers.
With protesters taking to the streets of Milan on Friday to demonstrate against the presence of ICE agents at the Games, Kenworthy is calling for people to lobby their senators over the “unchecked power” of ICE agents since Trump returned to power.
Holding signs reading “ICE out”, hundreds of mostly student protesters assembled in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, hours before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
The US State Department said last week that several federal agencies, including ICE, would help protect the visiting Americans, although the Italian government has stressed that US personnel will not conduct any policing on Italian streets. JD Vance, the US vice-president, and secretary of state Marco Rubio will represent the United States at the opening ceremony at San Siro stadium on Friday night, where Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli will be among the star performers.
There were also protests last Saturday in Piazza XXV Aprile in Milan, a square named after the date of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945.
Protesters have also spoken out against shutting down parts of the city for what they see as an unsustainable Olympics while housing remains unaffordable and social spaces are scarce.
Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala said that ICE agents are not welcome. Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi told parliament that only operatives from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division would be in Milan. “The presence of personnel linked to the ICE agency is not a sudden or unilateral attempt to restrict our national sovereignty,” Piantedosi said. “It is the implementation of a binding international agreement, fully compliant with our constitution and parliamentary prerogatives.”
Nicole Deal, the US Olympic security officer, has also stressed that no ICE agents are part of the Team USA Olympic delegation.
There has been a surge in arrests by ICE agents since Trump returned to power last year. The deaths of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during ICE protests in January have prompted a wave of condemnation and scrutiny over the past month.
The International Olympic Committee said last week that it was “distracting and sad” that the build-up to the Winter Olympics has been overshadowed by political issues.
Team GB unconcerned by Kenworthy’s comments
British freestyle skier Kenworthy has made previous outbursts about ICE, saying last week: “I’ve been waiting to say this in any interview but just f--- ICE so hard right now. F--- ICE.”
Rule 50 of the Olympic charter seeks to protect the neutrality of sport at the Olympic Games and states that: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
But there is more leniency on social media accounts, with participants not subject to guidelines and able to express their views away from Olympic sites, as well as before and after the Winter Olympics.
“During the Olympic Games, all participants have the opportunity to express their views as per the Athlete Expression Guidelines – the IOC does not regulate personal social media posts,” an IOC spokesperson said.
Team GB are understood to be unconcerned by Kenworthy’s comments, given that they are a personal opinion on a subject outside the Olympic Games, which does not involve the British team in any way.
Kenworthy, who won an Olympic silver medal for the United States at the Sochi Games in 2014, does not begin competing until February 19 and is believed to have made the post just before arriving in Milan for Friday’s ceremony.
The Essex-born Kenworthy, who now lives in Los Angeles, changed sporting allegiance to Great Britain in 2019. He finished eighth for Team GB in Beijing, when he spoke out about human rights issues in China. He has also appeared in four films and numerous television programmes in the United States.
Oliver Brown
It is utterly chilling that Donald Trump's private militia is infiltrating global sport
2026-02-06T13:41:09Z