Olympics of Outrage: Scandals and Purity Collide in Milano-Cortina

The 2026 Winter Olympics were a spectacle of politics, protest, and bizarre controversy. The Games featured U.S. politician J.D. Vance being loudly booed and Ukrainian bobsledders disqualified for a helmet protest. A French biathlete, convicted of fraud against her own teammate, then beat that teammate for gold. American skiing star Lindsey Vonn crashed out of her race in 12 seconds. The strangest moment came when Norway's ski jump team refused to answer questions about an untrue rumor they were injecting acid into their genitals. The internet also became briefly obsessed with a Canadian curler illegally touching a stone with his fingertip. These events made the Olympics seem chaotic and, at times, unrelatable. The founder of the modern Games, Pierre de Coubertin, once called winter sports "completely useless." But he later changed his view. After the first winter sports week in 1924, he declared them "among the purest." This year, that purity was found not in the scandals, but in the athletes themselves and their personal stories of dedication.