The Olympics are great because they give America a chance to prove our superiority by crushing other countries. But they also are vaguely suspect because they are run by an “international” committee traditionally dominated by corrupt Europeans and Communists and steeped in a kind of U.N.-style naive internationalism and moral neutrality.
The opening ceremonies, especially when they are held outside America, tend to emphasize the U.N.-style naive internationalism. The Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, event kicking off the 25th Winter Games in Milan and Cortina wasn’t the most ridiculous ever in that regard, but it did feature lots of projected images of the word “Armonia”—Italian for harmony.
“At a time when so much of the world is divided by conflict, your very presence demonstrates that another world is possible,” an International Olympic Committee member and organizer of the Milano Cortina games, Giovanni Malagò, told the athletes. “Your message of peace will be heard by all.”
“The organizers emphasize peace as a theme, harmony between seemingly dueling ideals,” one announcer intoned on the NBC live broadcast from the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy.
Iran sent a small team of athletes. They were followed closely, in alphabetical order, in the parade by a team from Israel.
China sent a team that included Eileen Gu, who was born and raised in San Francisco and is attending Stanford.
The U.S. flagbearer was Erin Jackson, a speed skater from Ocala, Fla. Her teammates wore white wool Ralph Lauren duffle coats. Vice President Vance and his wife Usha watched from above.
If patterns hold, plenty of stars will emerge from the U.S. team over the course of the competition. For the opening ceremony, though, the patriotic high points for television were provided largely by the commercials. I caught one from Chevrolet: “Make a date today to see the USA. See it in your Chevrolet … America’s the greatest land of all.”
A Michelob beer commercial zoomed in on an American flag on a beer bottle and spoke of Americans celebrating “as if we were the ones winning.”
As the ceremonies streamed, the Dow closed above 50,000. If you got bored by the parade of athletes from inferior countries, you could click over to Netflix and catch the documentary about the U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviet Communists at Lake Placid in 1980.
International peace may be far from hand and the International Olympic Committee will for the foreseeable future be dominated by fatuous Francophiles, but with a bit of luck, the Winter Games will at least provide American viewers with a reminder—as if one were needed, yet perhaps it is—that, as the Chevrolet ad puts it, “America’s the greatest land of all.”
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