The morning after the Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Olympics, the CEO of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games didn’t seem quite sure what the fuss was about over the response to U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
“I’m the head of the organizing committee. I’m not a fan. So I was looking at the ceremony in a completely different way,” Andrea Varnier told the Deseret News Saturday at the International Olympic Committee’s daily news conference in Milan.
“But I was there and I heard an incredible, incredible cheering when the U.S. team entered the stadium. That’s what I heard,” he said. “Honestly, I didn’t hear anything else. I just read (about it) in the papers afterward.”
There was a huge wave of support shown by spectators when Utah speedskater Erin Jackson led Team USA dressed in mostly white uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren into the massive San Siro soccer stadium.
But the mood of the crowd shifted when an American flag-waving Vance, the head of the U.S. delegation to the Olympics, appeared alongside his wife, Usha, on the stadium’s giant video screens. Suddenly, the crowd booed.
Varnier didn’t directly address a question about how Americans should interpret the mixed reaction the United States received.
“That’s my feeling,” he said. “Again, I was there and I cannot consider myself a fan at this time. I was busy with other things. But the cheering was amazing.”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters the relationship between the Trump administration and the Olympic movement “is a good one. The fact that the American team were cheered to the rafters, I think that’s a great thing.”
With the next Summer Games in the United States, in Los Angeles in 2028, Adams said the IOC is “super happy that the U.S. administration is so engaged with the Games. That is a great thing for the Olympic movement.”
A meeting between Vance and IOC President Kirsty Coventry “went incredibly well,” he said. “There was very good chemistry and they had a very good discussion. She was very pleased about the enthusiasm of the vice president for the Games.”
President Donald Trump has appointed himself the head of a White House task force on the LA28 Games, but has also suggested the Olympics could be moved due to disagreements with Democratic leaders in California.
Trump seemed surprised to hear about the reaction to Vance.
“Is that true? That’s surprising because people like him,” the president said, according to The New York Times. “I mean, he is in a foreign country in all fairness. He doesn’t get booed in this country.”
The Times called the scattered jeers and boos “an indication of the fury in Italy over the Trump administration’s policies.” There have been protests in Italy over the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel accompanying Vance.
The 2034 Winter Games will be held in Utah, the only other upcoming U.S. Olympic host.
The state previously hosted a Winter Games in 2002. Varnier spent time in Utah as one of the directors of his country’s last Winter Games, in Torino in 2006. He told the Deseret News last year he had “a fantastic time.”
