What a wonderful way to start the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina!

The opening ceremony was fantastic and featured a prediction I made on the podcast this week, the first day of medal events provided our family (and friends) plenty to cheer for, and the energy for this Games seems a lot better than Beijing.

Let’s start with the podcast prediction, here is a modified transcript of a conversation about whether or not the United States athletes would be booed or jeered during the Games.

Chris O: “Now here’s a question. How much hate will the American athletes get?”

Joe: “This is a great question. So on a scale of one to 10. Yeah. 10 being that every time the anthem gets played, it gets booed . . . I think they’re gonna be around seven. It’s gonna be noticeable. It’s gonna be, yeah, I think it’s gonna be seven.”

John: “I think it’s about 7:00 or 8:00. I mean, if you like me, there’s a lot of Italians and all that support, their president, Giorgia Meloni . . . with (U.S. President Trump) saying he wants to bring in ice and all that, there’s going to be the hate from there . . . Yeah. So we’ll see. I mean, can you imagine U.S.-Denmark. You tell me that Denmark fans are not going to boo?”

Chris O: “Oh, 100 per cent. We’re going to be booting the whole time. Every time they touch the puck, every time they, whatever, if it’s, they’re playing in hockey, if it’s any other sport, they’re going head-to-head. I think it’s going to be nine (on the hate o’ meter) . . . I think it’s going to be nine. I think when he was like, we’re sending ICE people for security, that was like the Italian people were like, now I’m offended . . . I think we’re all agreed that the hate level for the United States is going to be very high.”

The conversation went a bit deeper into politics, a united Europe and Canada who have been insulted by the American government, and the fact there may be football (soccer) ultras in attendance to really protest the situation with the U.S.

Listen to the full podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

But the main point is that the predictions were very accurate as in the opening ceremony the United States team – and their Vice President JD Lance – were met with boos and jeers as they were not welcomed with open arms.

France and Israel were also met with pockets of boos and jeers as they entered the stadium. It’s the unfortunate inevitability that international events will have the looming shadow of world politics unfortunately clouding up a celebration.

Canada, always a good friend to Italia, were welcomed with open arms and cheers, as were most nations.

Early medals for both my nations

Day 1 of medal events was fantastic for me as a fan: the host nation got three medals (one of each colour) and Canada picked up bronze.

Even better it was gold for Italia, Francesca Lollobrigida, and bronze for Canada, Valérie Maltais, in the women’s 3,000 metre speed skating event. I wrote a piece for my buddy’s newsletter talking about why speed skating is my favourite Olympic event, check it out here: Speed Skating at the Olympics.

Italia also finished second and third (Giovanni Franzoni and Dominik Paris) in the men’s Alpine skiing downhill final.

Canada is also doing well in the Team Event for figure skating, and my former Ottawa Sun colleague Rob Brodie has a wonderful piece on his blog, check it out: The Right Man for The Moment in Milan.

I’ll be sharing my views on the Olympics every few days during the Games. Stay tuned.

That’s it for me! Ciao for Now!