Cross-Country skier Jessie Diggins of Afton, Minnesota celebrates with a flag during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Matthias Hangst/Getty Images AsiaPac
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Matthias Hangst/Getty Images AsiaPac
MILAN — The Winter Olympics are set to open this Friday in Italy, some 4,600 miles away from Minneapolis, the epicenter of the uproar over the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement tactics.
As American athletes turn their attention to the Games here, some — including several from Minnesota, which is home to some of Team USA’s biggest stars — have spoken out in the wake of the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in January.
“I want to make sure you know who I’m racing for when I get to the start line at the Olympics,” wrote Jessie Diggins, the cross-country skiing star and three-time Olympic medalist, in a statement she posted to her Instagram on Saturday alongside a photo of herself celebrating with an American flag at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
“I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination,” the post continued. Diggins, 34, grew up in Afton, Minn., less than an hour’s drive from downtown Minneapolis. She is expected to compete in six cross-country events at the Olympics this month and could contend for a medal in all of them.
The day after 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot to death by Customs and Border Protection agents on a Minneapolis street, Team USA hockey player Kelly Pannek paused a post-game press conference for her professional team, the Minnesota Frost, to call the aggressive immigration enforcement “unnecessary and just horrifying.”
“It’s obviously really heavy,” said Pannek, who is from the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth, as her Frost teammate and fellow Team USA member Taylor Hei