Team GB skier posts graphic anti-ICE protest as Winter Olympics backlash continues

British Winter Olympian Gus Kenworthy has launched a tirade against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) as backlash grows over agents’ brutality against US citizens and its role in policing at the Winter Olympics.

The 34-year-old, who is part of Team GB in Milano-Cortina and will compete in the freeski half-pipe, appeared to urinate the phrase “Fuck ICE” in the snow in a post on Instagram shortly before the start of the Games.

Protests have broken out in Minneapolis after federal agents shot and killed two US citizens in January, while the news that ICE would be involved in the policing operation for the Olympics in Milan, albeit without a physical presence on the streets, was met with widespread backlash. Local protests took place in Milan on Saturday over the agency’s involvement in the Games.

Kenworthy wrote: “Innocent people have been murdered, and enough is enough. We can’t wait around while ICE continues to operate with unchecked power in our communities.”

The message was part of a draft letter he encouraged his followers to send to US senators, urging them to “refuse to support any final Department of Homeland Security funding agreement that fails to meaningfully rein in ICE and Border Patrol.”

“Senators still have leverage right now … and must use it to demand real guardrails and accountability – including getting ICE and CBP [customs and border protection] out of our communities, ending blank-check funding for brutality, and establishing clear limits on warrantless arrests, profiling, and enforcement at sensitive locations like schools and hospitals.”

Kenworthy competes for GB but was raised in Colorado and previously represented the US, where he still lives, in the 2014 and 2018 Olympics, winning slopestyle silver in Sochi.

He has avoided falling foul of the IOC’s rules, despite Rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter providing “for the protection of neutrality of sport at the Olympic Games”. It also says “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.

However, an IOC spokesperson said: “During the Olympic Games, all participants have the opportunity to express their views as per the Athlete Expression Guidelines. The IOC does not regulate personal social media posts.”

It is understood that Team GB are not concerned about the post as it is a personal opinion on a topic outside the Games, and does not invoke Team GB in any form.