A Team GB athlete has written an anti-ICE message in the snow ahead of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
Though some disciplines have already begun, the official opening ceremony takes place at the iconic San Siro in Milan.
Mariah Carey will perform at the event, where athletes from all nations will be introduced and paraded as well as the Olympic flag being raised and the Olympic cauldron lit to get the Games officially underway.
However, the build-up to the Games has been dominated by political tensions - with the presence of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States) resulting in strong protests in Milan.
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With the recent killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, the Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala branded the group “a militia that kills”.
While Donald Trump is not attending the opening ceremony, vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio will be after watching the US women's hockey team in action in a preliminary round game against the Czech Republic.
ICE will act as their security but days before, a a senior member of team GB's contingent sent out a message to the controversial law-enforcement agency.
Gus Kenworthy, a freestyle skier and an openly gay Olympian at the Milan-Cortina games, took to Instagram to share a photo where the words “F*** Ice” could be seen in urine on snow.
The picture, shared to his 1.2 million followers, was accompanied by a strong condemning of ICE's aggressive efforts.
“Innocent people have been murdered, and enough is enough,” Kenworthy stated.
“We can’t wait around while ICE continues to operate with unchecked power in our communities.
“Senators still have leverage right now … and must use it to demand real guardrails and accountability – including getting ICE and CBP [customs and border protection] out of our communities, ending blank-check funding for brutality, and establishing clear limits on warrantless arrests, profiling, and enforcement at sensitive locations like schools and hospitals.”
Kenworthy was born in Chelmsford, Essex, but emigrated to Colorado when he was just two, represented the USA for a four-year period between 2014 and 2018.
He switched allegiance prior to the Winter Olympics in Beijing four years ago and is with Team GB again for the latest Games.
The 2014 Olympic silver medalist is based in the US, where his father is from, and was vocal about the situation in his country.
In a second post, he added: “My last post was pee so it only felt appropriate to follow it up with a lil’ dump … of photos from January. Yes, I am a child.”
The IOC regularly stresses that sport is "neutral and must be separate from political, religious or any other type of interference”.
However, even though he has effectively violated Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, the 34-year-old has avoided punishment for the gesture - made before he arrived in Milan.
As per The Guardian, an IOC spokesperson confirmed that all athletes "have the opportunity to express their views as per the Athlete Expression Guidelines" and that the governing body "does not regulate personal social media posts”.
Topics: Olympics, Donald Trump
Josh Lawless