MILAN — The words on the sign were hard to read at first, lost as they were in a tightly-packed hodgepodge of fans watching the men’s Olympic short program Saturday night at Milano Ice Skating Arena. But then Fred Danbank spread his arms apart and held his sign a little wider, a little higher, and now its message, his message, was made clear:
“APOLOGIES TO THE WORLD
FOR OUR BAD BEHAVIOR,
WE WILL FIX OURSELVES!”
During a Games in which so many jeers have been directed at the United States, here now was an American figure skating fan from Greenwich, Conn., weighing in, doing so via an apology mixed with a hopeful message. We will fix ourselves.
“We’re on a world platform here right now,” said Danbank, 61, an insurance executive who plans to retire at the end of the year. “And people need to know that we, as Americans, appreciate the world, we love the world, and we want to be part of the world.”
Lest he be dismissed as a flighty lefty, Danbank revealed some details about his family’s political history. “I was 40 years a Republican,” he said. “My whole life, I’ve been a Republican. My father was a Republican.”
The rectangular flag sign was professionally made, with black uppercase letters printed neatly in three decks over a white background, with hints of the American flag at the top and bottom. On the back is printed a message that focuses on the athletic competition being played out in Milan and across Northern Italy: “GO TEAM USA.”
The flip side of Danbank’s sign. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Few people in this lower-bowl section of the arena seemed to react to the sign. Olympic figure skating legend Dorothy Hamill, 69, and her husband, John MacColl, happened to be seated directly behind Danback and his wife and daughter. Hamill, whose 1976 gold medal made her one of America’s most popular Olympic celebrities, played no role in the sign’s political message, although she said she was happy to talk figure skating with Danback’s daughter. International incident averted.
Yet Danback did acknowledge that some might object to the sign.
“That’s a really fair question to ask,” Danback said in the concourse during a break in the program. “I would say we don’t have many opportunities for the world to see us. This is one of them, and I have to use this because it seems like everyone is ignoring what’s happening. And we can’t ignore it. If we ignore it, we get ourselves back to the 1930s.”
In terms of pubic displays of political affection, or lack thereof, Danback was not an outlier at the team figure skating competition. Elsewhere in the building, a woman named Patti Masini from just outside Yerington, Nev., ambled about in a frilly pink-on-white mountain goat fur outfit with “Trump” emblazoned across her lower back. Masini, who said she’s “in her late 40s,” insisted her clothing was not intended to be a political statement.
“I’m here because I enjoy the Olympics and always have enjoyed the Olympics,” Masini said. “And when it hit me — it did strike me — that, you know what, support Trump at the Olympics. And so I did.”
The displays, it could be argued, violate long-held Olympic rules that forbid political statements at its events. In 2014, the head of Russia’s Communist Party was forced to take down a hammer-and-sickle Soviet banner he displayed during a short track speed skating ceremony. The International Olympic Committee did not respond to a message seeking comment about the Saturday displays.
Let’s not kid ourselves: The Olympic Games have never been free of politics, social commentary, and protest. These ventures can be heroic, as when Tommie Smith and John Carlos valiantly raised their fists as a Black Power salute in Mexico City in 1968. They can be sinister, like Hitler’s hopes to turn the 1936 Berlin Games into a Nazi propaganda vehicle.
What’s different about the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics is that it’s the United States that’s playing defense, from Italians protesting about ICE presence in their home country to the boos mixed in with some cheers that rained down on Vice President JD Vance when he appeared on screen during the opening ceremony Friday night at Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium. Vance was booed again Sunday while leaving a women’s hockey game between the United States and Finland, yet was largely ignored at a figure skating competition on Saturday.
While the likes of the sign-holding Danbank and the pink-clad Masini are willing to put their political leanings on Olympic display, a new reality has emerged for the athletes: being put in prime position to answer for the actions of the country they represent.
“Politics affect us all,” says U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn. “It is something that I will not just be quiet about.” (Mike Lawrie / Getty Images)
“It’s a little hard,” said Hunter Hess, a halfpipe skier from Bend, Ore. “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. Wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”
The way Hess sees it, “I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it.”
American figure skater Amber Glenn, who identifies as a bisexual/pansexual woman, responded to a question about the president’s approach to the LGBTQ+ community by saying, “Yeah, it’s been a hard time for the community overall, and this administration. It is the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights. And now especially, it’s not just affecting the queer community, but many other communities.”
Glenn has a response to the tried-and-true rebuttal that she should “stick to sports.”
“I know that a lot of people say, ‘You’re just an athlete,’ like, ‘Stick to your job,’ ‘Shut up about politics,’” Glenn said. “But politics affect us all. It is something that I will not just be quiet about, because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. So of course, there are things that I disagree with, but as a community, we are strong, and we support each other, and brighter days are ahead of us.”