President Donald Trump called Team USA member Hunter Hess “a real Loser” and said it was “very hard to root for someone like this” after the 27-year-old freeskier’s comments about representing his country at the Winter Olympics.

A reporter asked Hess at a news conference on February 6 what it means to him to represent the United States in the current climate, both domestically and internationally. He responded that it “brings up mixed emotions” and was “a little hard.”

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“There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and think a lot of people aren’t,” Hess said. “If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. But just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean that I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

The Olympics are being held amid political instability in the United States, and most, if not all, U.S. athletes are feeling this pressure.

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Hess’ teammate, snowboarder Chloe Kim, expressed support for Hess: “We are allowed to voice our opinions on what’s going on,” the two-time gold medalist said at a news conference on February 9.

Though some argue there is no room for politics in sports, we must ask the critical question: Was there ever a time when the two were not intertwined?

Racism and sexism in sports

For much of United States history, professional sports leagues were largely segregated or restricted to white (presumably heterosexual) males due to overarching sexism and systemic racism emphasized by Jim Crow-era policies.

Major League Baseball officially banned Black players until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. The NBA did not racially integrate until 1950 with players like Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and Earl Lloyd.

In football, the AAFC began signing Black players between 1947 and 1950. Also in 1950, Althea Gibson became the first Black player to compete in a U.S. Lawn Tennis Association event.

Before 1870, women’s activities were more recreational than competitive. By the late 1800s and into the 1900s, women formed athletic clubs that served as precursors to officially recognized women’s sports leagues.

Women were banned from competing at the modern Olympic Games until 1900 in Paris, when a total of 22 women (2.2% of all the athletes) competed in five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism, and golf. Hélène de Pourtalès became the first female Olympic champion, and Charlotte Cooper won the first individual gold medal.

In the United States, women’s and girls’ competitive sports were limited until Federal Legislation Title IX became the law of the land. It mandated that society legally recognize a woman’s right to participate in sports on an equal playing field with men.

Taking a knee

Eventually joined by a growing chorus of other athletes, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to stand up to systemic racism by remaining seated (or kneeling) during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, the U.S. national anthem, at professional football games and other sporting events.

At one post-game interview, Kaepernick asserted, “The message is that we have a lot of issues in this country that we need to deal with. We have a lot of people that are oppressed. We have a lot of people that aren’t treated equally, that aren’t given equal opportunities. Police brutality is a huge thing that needs to be addressed. There are a lot of issues that need to be talked about.”

He emphasized that he is not anti-American and that he loves his country. “I love people. That’s why I’m doing this,” he said. “I want to help make America better.”

Kaepernick continued his protests during the regular season and donated $1 million to a variety organizations helping marginalized communities.

Though Kaepernick and his movement has garnered increasing support, an intense backlash, including from President Trump, has developed among those who accused Kaepernick of disrespecting the flag and the country it represents. They also accused him of misusing his celebrity.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b**ch off the field right now, out, he’s fired,” Trump said in 2017. “He’s fired!’ You know, some owner is gonna do that… [These owners are] friends of mine, many of them… They’ll be the most popular person in the country.”

The NFL finally apologized for not supporting Kaepernick’s movement.

Let us not forget

This week, I began to think about watching the 1968 Olympics from my undergraduate alma mater, San José State University.

I still clearly see in my mind’s eye the raised, black-gloved fists of gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos soaring into the air of history during the track and field medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics. As the Star-Spangled Banner blared throughout the stadium, Smith and Carlos stood in resolute salute to all the human rights workers and victims of injustice in the United States and throughout the world.

They both ascended the winner’s platform shoeless, wearing black socks to highlight Black poverty. Representing Black pride, Smith wore a black scarf around his neck, and Carlos unzipped the top of his tracksuit in solidarity with all working-class blue-collar workers in the United States. He wore a strand of beads, which he declared “…were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage.”  

I watched the ceremonies from my university apartment with my roommates. Tears of pride streamed down my face, not merely because of my connections to Smith and Carlos – who were my classmates at San José State – but because they clearly demonstrated the political potential, and more importantly, the political nature of sport to transform minds, hearts, and souls for the betterment of society.

Not everyone, even at my school, supported their actions. Some saw the purpose of sport as entertainment only, and not to advance a political policy or agenda. Avery Brundage, International Olympic Committee president, scolded the athletes and the U.S. Olympic Committee for bringing domestic politics into “the apolitical, international forum [of] the Olympic Games.”

Soon after Smith’s and Carlos’ actions, the U.S. Olympic Committee suspended them from the team and barred them from the Olympic Village. My university, however, gave them a standing ovation when they returned to campus, and we later honored the two athletes with a 22-foot-high statue installed in 2005.

Anyone who asserts the “apolitical” nature of sport should ask the NFL whether their choice of Bad Bunny to perform at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show had political implications.

Ask the Minnesota Timberwolves why they held a moment of silence in January 2026 over the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good Alex Pretti by federal ICE agents in Minneapolis.

Ask President Jimmy Carter why he chose to have the U.S. boycott the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

Ask the athletes and spectators at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, why they proudly waved rainbow flags and wore rainbow garments, held placards, and publicly embraced and kissed others of the same sex as Russian authorities passed legislation and cracked down on so-called “LGBT propaganda.”

Ask historians whether Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, seriously called into question Nazi “racial” political philosophy on the supremacy of the so-called “Aryan race.”

Ask the relatives of Jackie Robinson whether his very existence as the first Black professional baseball player had political implications within the sport and whether it expanded opportunities for people of color in larger society.

Ask boxer Muhammad Ali whether his opposition to the Vietnam War and his refusal to comply with the military draft affected his career when he was taken to jail and had his heavyweight national championship rescinded.

Ask Michael Sam about his experiences as the first out gay man recruited by an NFL team.

Ask Billie Jean King whether politics surrounded her win over Bobby Riggs in 1973 in their “Battle of the Sexes” and if it affected her becoming the first prominent woman athlete to come out as a lesbian.

Ask Martina Navratilova about her experiences as an out lesbian on the professional tennis circuit.

Ask Kareem Abdul Jabbar if his statements calling out systemic antisemitism were political in nature.

Ask Steph Curry why he spoke out about the murder of George Floyd and said he was fed up with police violence against African Americans and the institutional racism that has been foundational since the inception of the United States.

Ask Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only Black driver in the top ranks, whether he took a political action when he moved the organization forcefully and courageously to officially ban the showing of the Confederate flag in all its forms from events.

Ask every champion athlete who have refused to attend White House celebrations whether their decision was political. 

Let us not forget the political courage it took for Peter Norman, the white athlete on the second-place platform beside Tommie Smith and John Carlos, to speak out in support of their actions in the aftermath. For this, he faced social and professional ostracism upon his return to his native Australia.

Significant social change progresses when members of socially dominant groups join the battle for justice.

Should athletes really have to relinquish their First Amendment right to free speech once they don their team jerseys and enter the sports arena? What about when they are on their own time off the field of play?

Perhaps, as time goes by, as more pioneers break racial, sexual, gender, religious, ethnic, language, and other barriers, athletes’ influence in politics will wane. But there is no doubt sport will forever have some sort of political consequences – and possibilities.

When Tim Tebow prays and performs the sign of the cross on his chest on the football field and talks of his love for Jesus Christ during interviews, he is not only engaged in religious acts, but also promoting Christian cultural hegemony within an allegedly religiously diverse nation. As such, he advanced his own political agenda.

When athletes become heroes

In our modern era, an ever-increasing number of individual athletes, but also, men’s and women’s sports teams and entire leagues are taking a symbolic knee by boycotting the fields, courts, ice, diamonds, anchor desks, and administrative offices to lend their collective voices in support of the movement for racial and gender equality.

Hopefully, we will witness more athletes, team owners, and sports commentators adding their high-profile voices to ensure equity for transgender athletes.

Recently, these leaders have entered the arena to speak out against the spate of voting restriction laws. In 2021, for example, in partnership with the Players’ Alliance, the MLB pulled its previously scheduled All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to Georgia’s enactment of draconian voter restriction laws clearly designed to disenfranchise communities of color.

Opponents to the Georgia law and others proposed throughout the country have called them “Jim Crow 2.0,” referring to the prolonged period of U.S. history not so long ago that included legal sanctions on the voting rights of people of color.

This action by MLB to relocate the All-Star Game follows other courageous decisions in sports to advance social change.

The NBA relocated its All-Star Game in 2017 from Charlotte, North Carolina, in reaction to HB2, a state law requiring people to use restrooms that correspond with the gender assigned to them at birth, thereby prohibiting transgender people from accessing the restrooms in which they belong. 

And in 1991, NFL team owners voted to withdraw the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix following Arizona voters’ failure to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid legal holiday.

L.A. Clippers’ Coach Doc Rivers’ words echoed throughout the NBA in 2020 after yet another violent police murder of a Black man when he went off script at a press conference and tearfully mourned, “It’s amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.”

Speaking truth to power and challenging injustice also comes with social, professional, and physical risks.

But doing it anyway is what defines a hero.

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