In this episode of The Round Room, we examine how politics have overshadowed the 2026 Winter Olympics—from protests in Milan over the reported presence of U.S. ICE agents, to American athletes speaking out against immigration policies, and the disqualification of a Ukrainian athlete over a war memorial helmet. The episode explores the growing tension between athletic competition and political expression on the global stage.

We would love to thank our writing team, who put together the script for this episode: Audrey Collison, Valeria Guerrero, and Nathan Igoe. And, of course, we'd love to thank our sound editor Colten Gottlob.

To keep up with podcast updates, please follow @theroundroompod on Instagram.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y29xzjdzvo

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/6/anti-ice-protesters-rally-in-milan-ahead-of-olympics-opening

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/italy/ice-role-winter-olympics-prompts-fury-italy-rcna256087

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/winter-olympics-2026-athletes-protest-ice-trump-minneapolis-shooting-rcna256219

​​https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-criticizes-olympic-skier-hunter-hess-rcna258083

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/09/nx-s1-5706017/as-us-olympians-call-for-tolerance-and-lgbtq-rights-some-face-trump-attacks-and-online-hate

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/live-blog/2026-winter-olympics-live-updates-rcna256602

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/06/olympics-2026-winter-games-trump-ice-protest

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-5719335/alysa-liu-figure-skating-gold-olympics

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/ukraine-vladyslav-heraskevych-disqualified-winter-olympics-helmet-war-rcna258696

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/2/12/ukraines-heraskevych-disqualified-from-olympics-skeleton-over-helmet

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/ukraine-boycott-winter-paralympics-russians-competing-flag-belarus-rcna259525