The US Olympic team reflected the changing face of America that Donald Trump and MAGA hate

It’s been a week since the closing ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympics and the countdown to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics has just begun. Team U.S.A. reflected the diverse and changing face of America. Our athletes’ success was a striking counterpoint to the efforts by Donald Trump and his MAGA cultists to foment hatred and turn the clock back, especially by dismantling DEI  (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs.

Indian-American Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, wrote in opinion piece for USA Today:

In addition to giving us countless thrilling moments of athletic excellence, the Summer Games have given the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) movement the greatest gift it could ever hope for: a picture of success that can inspire people from across the political spectrum.I don’t see anyone calling Simone Biles or Suni Lee a "DEI hire." Rather, they are Olympic gold medalists proudly representing the United States at the highest level of global competition, each of them made stronger by their distinctive identities. Biles and Lee are part of the most diverse U.S. women’s gymnastics team in history. ...

They represent what makes America great: individuals from diverse backgrounds, viewing their distinctive identities as sources of pride, cooperating together to achieve excellence and bring honor to their nation.

And Washington Post columnist Michele L. Norris wrote that while “right-wing warriors can rail against diversity, equity and inclusion all they want … and claim America is their country” they can’t be blind to what was on display to the world at the Paris Olympics.

Norris wrote:

Diversity is now a core part of America’s brand. In gymnastics and swimming. In fencing and rugby. In skateboarding, tennis, boxing, basketball and so much more. In commentary from Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav. In the massive billboards all over Paris from U.S.-based companies such as Nike and Ralph Lauren that feature brown-skinned models. And let’s not forget the music that’s played to pump up the audience at all the events — whether or not Americans are competing. ... As we watch Americans rack up medals, that retrograde Trumpian Make America Great Again message seems silly; America is clearly pretty great right now.

You cannot cheer for the United States in this moment without also cheering on the diversity born of merit. And that is an important point because the ammunition used to instill fears about diversity in a changing America are based on the false notion that Black and Brown people are getting something they don’t deserve.

Vice President Kamala Harris gets it. She sent out this message on X, formerly Twitter, after the closing ceremony of the Paris Games, where her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, led the U.S. delegation.

Donald Trump had nothing good to say about Team USA. Instead, he put out this whiney and weird post-Olympics post in which he called the Paris Games the “Worst Olympics ever!”

“A man is winning gold medal defeating women and a woman's petition was rejected because she was only 100 grams over the limit. Is it not an irony ?”

You have to ask: Why does Donald Trump hate America? He didn’t even mention black gymnast Jordan Chiles getting stripped of her bronze medal for the individual women’s floor exercise.

But it seems that Trump’s still obsessed by the female Algerian gold-medal winning boxer Imane Khelif. Trump apparently chose to believe a baseless claim by a Russian boxing official — Umar Kremlev of the International Boxing Association — that Khelif was a man or transgender. After all, that fits in with right-wing Republicans’ crusade against trans female athletes competing in school sports. 

The Washington Post wrote:

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) cut ties with the IBA last year over Kremlev’s connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other scandals. The IOC accused the IBA of running a Russian-backed “disinformation campaign against the Olympic movement.”

That’s not surprising because Russia was infuriated after Russian teams were not allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, although some individual Russian athletes were allowed to take part as individual neutral athletes after undergoing a vetting process.

After the Games, Khelif filed a legal complaint in France for alleged gender-based cyber harassment. The complaint did not name the perpetrators. 

The Indian wrestler who was disqualified from her gold medal final against American Sarah Hildebrandt was Vinesh Phogat, who was found to be 100 grams — about 3.5 ounces — over the weight limit for the 50-kilogram category.

Well, enough of grumpy old man Trump.

Let’s compare the 2024 U.S. women’s gymnastic team to the all-white 1984 team at the Los Angeles Olympics. That team was led by Mary Lou Retton, who was dubbed "America’s sweetheart" after becoming the first female U.S. gymnast to win the all-around individual gold medal at the Olympics. The Los Angeles Games were boycotted by the U.S.S.R. and other Soviet bloc nations, with the exception of Romania.

Retton would go on to campaign for Ronald Reagan in 1984 and recite the pledge of allegiance at the 2004 Republican National Convention which nominated President George W. Bush for a second term.

Former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial, who now heads the National Urban League civil rights organization, wrote  for The Washington Informer, a Black woman-owned news outlet, about the diversification of the U.S. women’s gymnastic team over the years and its increased success as a result.

The diversity of the women’s gymnastics team has captured the world’s attention, given the historic exclusion of women of color from the sport.

When Dominique Dawes competed in the Olympic trials for the 1992 Barcelona Games, she was the first Black gymnast to ever qualify. She was part of the celebrated “Magnificent Seven” in the 1996 Atlanta games who won the first-ever gold medal for the United States in the women’s team competition.

A decade after Dawes Olympics debut, Gabby Douglas became the first Black woman of any nationality to win the all-around gold medal in gymnastics.

It would be absurd to argue that Black women were absent from Olympic gymnastics for nearly a century because of a lack of talent. It is an equally absurd argument to make about executive leadership in the nation’s top corporations, admissions to elite colleges and universities, or the Oval Office.

Patel wrote in USA Today:

I don’t see anyone calling Simone Biles or Suni Lee a "DEI hire." Rather, they are Olympic gold medalists proudly representing the United States at the highest level of global competition, each of them made stronger by their distinctive identities.

Biles and Lee are part of the most diverse U.S. women’s gymnastics team in history. Four of the five women are ethnic and racial minorities: Hezly Rivera’s family is Dominican American. Jordan Chiles’ mother is Latina and her father is African American. Biles is Black. And Lee is Asian American.

Biles herself picked up three gold medals — in the team all-around, the individual all-around and the vault, and earned a silver medal in the floor exercise, making her the GOAT of American gymnasts with 11 Olympic medals.

And Biles got in an apparent jab at Trump who came under much criticism after claiming without any evidence that immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally are “taking Black jobs” during his July 27 debate with President Joe Biden.

As for the U.S. men’s gymnastic team, it is also more diverse. Two of its five members were BIPOC — Asher Hong is of Chinese descent and Frederick Richard is black  (his father is Haitian and his mother Dominican). Another team member, Paul Juda, is the son of Polish immigrants.

The U.S. men won their first Olympic all-around team medal in gymnastics since 2008, earning a bronze medal. Stephen Nedoroscik, who became known as “pommel horse guy,” won bronze in his individual event.

Hong said today's U.S. gymnastics teams better reflect the true makeup of the United States. "We're called the melting pot after all," Hong said, as quoted by Reuters. "I think it's great that we can all be so different but so cohesive."

Trump’s GOP has spread hatred toward immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. But both groups were well represented on Team USA.

The Guardian published a story titled: USA’s Olympic team is bolstered by a crucial group of athletes: immigrants. The story read:

Many of the 594 athletes named to the US Olympic team this summer are immigrants or the children of immigrants, all of whom have chosen to represent a country that is in the throes of a movement that would have limited their ability to get there or stay there, even through legal means.An analysis by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research found that 3.7% of athletes on this year’s US Olympic team are foreign-born, while more than 7% are children of immigrants or second-generation immigrants.

The George Mason study found that the foreign-born athletes on Team USA represented 16 different countries and competed in 11 different sports.

In a Substack piece, columnist Paul Waldman wrote that it should come as no surprise “that so many immigrants and children of immigrants become Olympians.”

“The qualities necessary to achieve that level of athletic excellence — drive, focus, commitment, the ability to recover from setbacks, a strong work ethic — are often found in people willing to pick up from the place of their birth and make a fresh start in a new country.”

“When you see that Olympic team, which unlike the groups representing most other countries comes in all hues and from all backgrounds, what is your response?” he concluded. “I’ll tell you what comes to my mind: That is what America ought to be, right there. Look at what we show the world: all these different kinds of people who came from everywhere, and they all wear ‘USA’ on their shirts. That’s what makes me proud to be an American.” Congrats to all of Team USA – and job well done at the Paris games.”

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon, could have chosen to play for France. Instead, he helped the U.S. men’s basketball team win its gold medal final against France. He also was presented with a special Order of Valor medal by the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya.

Naomi Girma, the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants and a Stanford University graduate with a degree in computational linguistics, was the star defender on the gold-medal U.S. women’s soccer team. And  20-year-old Amit Elor, a daughter of Israeli immigrants, became the youngest U.S. wrestler, male or female to win an Olympic gold medal.

Then there’s gymnast Suni Lee, who added to her Olympic medal collection with a gold medal (team all-around) and two bronze medals (individual all around and uneven bars).  She was raised by her mother, Yeev Thoj, and her mother’s partner, John Lee, who were both among the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos who fled to the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Lee is from Minnesota. Gov. Tim Walz has regularly supported the Hmong community and its Olympic gold medalist.

As for LGBTQ+ athletes, Outsports noted that “the United States leads the world in the growing number of publicly out LGBTQ athletes.” At least 29 out LGBTQ athletes represented the U.S., about 5% of the athletes competing for Team USA at the Paris Games.

Only one of them was male, Nico Young, the first out gay male U.S. track & field athlete to compete at the Olympics. He finished 12th in the 10,000-meter event.

The out LGBTQ athletes include seven of the 12 members of the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s basketball team — Kayleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Alyssa Thomas — as well as their coach Cheryl Reeve. During the Paris Games, the Team USA women’s basketball squad and their coach endorsed Kamala Harris for President.

There were several publicly out multi medalists, including Sha’Carri Richardson (gold in the 4 x 100 relay and silver in the 100-meter dash) and fencer Lauren Scruggs (gold in the team foil and silver in women’s foil). The bronze-medal-winning U.S. women’s rugby team had six out gay players. And there were two U.S. Olympians — Raven Saunders and Nikki Hiltz —  who use the non-binary pronouns they/them.

Raven “Hulk” Saunders, who won a silver medal in the women’s shot put event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, is a proud gay Black woman who is an advocate for mental health awareness. When they were introduced at the Paris Games, they crossed their arms and formed an X with their wrists crossed atop their head  — the same gesture they made at the Tokyo medals ceremony. They said the X stood for “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” Saunders didn’t medal in the finals, but says they want to compete in the Los Angeles Games.

Saunders and Richardson celebrated together during the Olympics.

And finally, there's Hiltz, who became the first out  trans female athlete ever to qualify for an individual Olympic final. They finished seventh in the women’s 1,500-meters.

Hiltz told ABC News in an interview before the Olympics:

"I just feel so grateful for all the queer and trans people who have come before me. I want to be that for the next generation. And yeah, it's – it's hard to be something that you can't see. And so I just think representation and visibility is what helped me so much growing up. So, yeah, I just want to do that for even just one kid who watches the Olympics, maybe sees themselves in me, like it'll be all worth it."