An enthusiastic welcome for American athletes at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony quickly soured when cameras focused on Vice President JD Vance.
According to Independent, Team USA, led by speedskater and flag bearer Erin Jackson, was among the final delegations to parade into Milan’s San Siro stadium on Friday.
While the crowd cheered for the athletes, jeers and whistles erupted as Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, appeared on stadium screens, waving American flags.
Commentators highlighted this distinct shift in the crowd’s reception.
“There’s the vice president and his wife, Usha; those are not, oh, those are a lot of boos for him,” one commentator said on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s coverage.
On social media, viewers at home noted hearing the boos as well. It comes after International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry urged spectators to be “respectful” toward US athletes after worldwide backlash over Trump’s immigration raids and the killing of two Americans by border officers in Minnesota.
Besides Milan, athlete parades were held in three other locations: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo. The Games are staged across a vast area of northern Italy, making them the most geographically dispersed Winter Olympics in history.
