The International Olympic Committee has admitted that it is “distracting and sad” that the buildup to the Winter Olympics has been dominated by the deployment of ICE agents to Milan-Cortina and the appearance of the Los Angeles 2028 chair, Casey Wasserman, in the Epstein files. However Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president, insisted that once the Games begin on Friday, their “magic and spirit” would take over.
Coventry refused to comment directly on the protests in Milan against immigration and customs enforcement agents and said she hadn’t spoken to Wasserman, who has apologised for flirty emails sent to Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003 when he was married, which only surfaced on Friday.
However Coventry did accept that such distractions were far from ideal. “I think anything that is distracting from these Games is sad, right?” she said. “But we’ve learned over the many years that there’s always been something that has taken the lead up to the Games, whether it has been Zika or Covid, there has always been something.
“But what is keeping my faith alive, is that when that opening ceremony happens and those athletes start competing, suddenly, the world remembers magic and the spirit that the Games have. And they get to suddenly remember what’s actually important, and they get to be inspired.”
Saturday’s protest against ICE in Piazza XXV Aprile in Milan, a square named after the date of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945, drew hundreds of demonstrators. Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala has also said that ICE agents, who will accompany the US vice-president JD Vance to Friday’s ceremony, are not welcome.
The appearance of Wasserman in the Epstein files, and reports that another IOC member is also in the emails, have been another distraction. “I’ve not been in contact with Casey,” added Coventry. “The focus has fully been on Milano-Cortina. In terms of IOC members, we’re obviously watching and monitoring the media, and we’re aware of a few things that have been reported just today. We need some time to look into that.”
Meanwhile the Olympic Games’ executive director, Christophe Dubi, has insisted that the 11,800-capacity Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena would be ready in time despite admitting that construction was going down to the wire.
“Do we still have work? Yes,” said Dubi. “Cleaning, absolutely. It’s frantic. But it’s to make it a really, really great venue. And hats off, because it started very late. So what they have pulled out in very few months is absolutely outstanding.”
