MILAN — The world is experiencing more conflict and turmoil than at any point since the Berlin Wall came down nearly four decades ago.
There are hot wars in Ukraine and Gaza, cold wars on the Korean peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait, and budding wars in Iran and parts of Africa. The Global Peace Index is at its lowest level ever.
But four days into the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, harmony reigns in the Olympic villages and venues across northern Italy,
“We’re only a [few] days into competition, so let’s cross our fingers,” said Andrea Varnier, the managing director of the Milan-Cortina Games. “This is sport. It’s the athletes of the world getting together and you have to focus on that and try to leave other matters in other places.
“That’s why we do the Games.”
Maybe. But the Olympic Games long have been a platform for politics and protest, from the Nazi propaganda in 1936 to the black-gloved fists of John Carlos and Tommie Smith in 1968 to the Munich massacre four years later.
More than 135 countries, including the U.S., have boycotted at least one Olympics over political differences. So the level of calm that has descended over Italy’s Olympic venues is drawing notice.
“The geopolitics coming into these Games is perhaps more tense than I can ever remember,” said a British adviser to the Milan-Cortina Olympic organizing committee who was not authorized to speak publicly. “People have just come for, I think, almost a break from the macro geopolitics, just to get away from it all and enjoy everyone coming together without all that.”
Which isn’t to say the Olympics are devoid of drama.
Back in the U.S., President Trump has taken to social media to criticize some of the American team’s best athletes, who have used news conferences to speak out against federal immigration raids in Minnesota, the treatment of immigrants and anti-LGBTQ policies adopted by the Trump administration.
On Sunday, Trump called freestyle skier Hunter Hess “a loser” after Hess said wearing the flag “doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
On Monday, Chloe Kim, a two-time Olympic snowboard champion whose parents are from South Korea, and snowboarder Bea Kim answered Trump.
“My parents being immigrants from Korea, this one definitely hits pretty close to home,” said Chloe Kim, who is from Torrance. “I’m really proud to represent the United States. The U.S. has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions of what’s going on.”
Bea Kim, a teenager from Palos Verdes, is also from a Korean immigrant family.
“There are a lot of different opinions in the U.S. right now. Obviously, we’re very divided,” she said. “I personally am very proud to represent the United States. That being said, diversity is what makes us a very strong country and what makes that so special.”
During the last two weeks, large demonstrations in Milan have addressed everything from the cost and environmental impact of the Games to the inclusion of U.S. immigration agents within the American team’s security detail. On Saturday, one of those protests turned violent when about 100 hooded protesters broke off from a peaceful march and clashed with police, who responded by firing on them with tear gas and a water cannon. Six people were arrested.
And the country’s transport ministry said it opened a terrorism investigation into the synchronized sabotage of railway lines in northern Italy on the first day of the Games last weekend.
All of that has unfolded away from the competition venues and Olympic villages. So while it’s still early, the mostly calm, relaxed atmosphere at the Milan-Cortina Games stands in marked contrast to other recent Olympics.
Two years ago, the Summer Games in Paris opened under threats of political sabotage by Russia, fears of Islamist terror plots and the spillover from the Israel-Hamas war. As a result, more than 75,000 policemen, soldiers and private security officers were activated for the opening ceremony, and camouflaged soldiers carrying assault rifles became a common sight outside venues.
In 2012, more than 18,000 military personnel deployed around London’s Olympic sites, the largest peacetime operation in modern British history.
“We don’t want to create a militarized type of environment,” Varnier said. “Getting closer to the Games, we didn’t perceive this tension.”
The theme for the opening ceremonies was armonia, or harmony, and many credit Kirsty Coventry, the International Olympic Committee president who is presiding over her first Games, with helping create the change in tone. The first woman and first African to head the IOC, the five-time Olympic swimmer has worked to return the Games to the competitors by shielding them from political divisions and stressing unity and respect.
And most of the athletes have embraced that.
Their village in Cortina d’Ampezzo has a fitness center, recreational space, lounge, dining hall, prayer room and massage rooms — all of which were designed to foster interaction and cultural exchanges among the 1,400 residents from more than six dozen countries who will spend the Games there.
“It’s been so nice,” Czech curler Vit Chabicovsky said. “We’ve met each other in the Olympic village before the competition, and everyone was saying hi. Everyone congratulated us for making it here from the Olympic qualification.
“Throughout the event, it was a little bit more tense, you can imagine, because we’re competing. But yeah, I think the curling community is just so friendly and it’s been nothing but amazing.”
“We’re living together, training together, eating together,” U.S. curler Cory Thiesse added. “It’s just such a fun environment to be in, surrounded by so many other athletes.”
The sprawling village in Milan, home to nearly 1,500 athletes from 42 countries, has similar common areas where athletes are encouraged to mix.
“It is pretty cool. I have never seen anything like this,” U.S. hockey player Auston Matthews said. “It is what the Olympics are all about. It is the best athletes from all around the world.”
There are other factors that also have contributed to the peaceful atmosphere. Part of it has to do with which countries are participating and which are not.
Ukraine is here, for example, but Russia isn’t. Israel sent nine athletes, including a bobsled team nicknamed “Shul Runnings,” while there are no Palestinian participants. And the only Koreans here are from the southern half of the peninsula.
However, there are 13 Russians competing in Italy as individual neutral athletes, the title used to describe Russians and Belorussians allowed to take part despite their countries being banned from the Games following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That hasn’t gone over well with everybody.
“I personally am against that,” said Vadym Kolesnik, a U.S. ice dancer who was born in Ukraine. “They’re a terrorist country. They’re killing Ukrainians every day, and until the war is over I think they have no place.”
Emilea Zingas, Kolesnik’s partner and girlfriend, tried to fit those comments into the spirit of the Milan-Cortina Games.
“We don’t really want to have any beef with anyone,” she said. “We’re representing United States at the Olympic Games, and that’s really special. We’re not focused on any type of political situation.”
Another factor is the size of these Olympics. There are fewer countries and athletes in the Winter Games — 2,871 from 91 countries in Milan-Cortina, compared to 10,714 from 204 nations in Paris in 2024.
“Limited delegations and less media attention,” Varnier said. “I think that’s a factor.”
Then there’s the fact national teams are spread out among six housing complexes. Because the delegations at each site are smaller, athletes from different countries necessarily bump into each other more often.
Also, while the four main competition clusters — Cortina d’Ampezzo, Valtellina, Val di Fiemme and Milan — are spread over an area roughly the size of New Jersey, the villages and venues are relatively small, especially when compared to London or Paris. That makes these Games much easier to manage.
“Milano-Cortina managed expectations very well,” said the British adviser to the local organizing committee, who has worked on the last 14 Olympics, both summer and winter. “They kind of didn’t build this up to be the huge thing that’s going to change the world. …
“[But there is] every opportunity for it to have an impact. People realizing that we’re all part of a global village, that we can unite, and sport is a great way of doing that.”
Times staff writers Thuc Nhi Nguyen and Sam Farmer contributed to this story.
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