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Two Team USA athletes are speaking out about what it means to them to represent their country before the rest of the world amid a season of political turmoil at home. While several athletes skirted around the question of politics with diplomatic answers about representing personal values at the 2026 Winter Olympics, freestyle skiers Chris Lillis and Hunter Hess acknowledged that wearing red, white and blue at this point in history comes with mixed emotions during a press conference on Friday, Feb. 6.

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00:00I feel heartbroken about what's happened in the United States when, you know, I'm pretty sure you're referencing ICE and some of the protests and things like that.
00:09I think that as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody's rights and making sure that we're treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect.
00:20And I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that that's the America that we're trying to represent.
00:26It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think.
00:31It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't.
00:37If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it.
00:42Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.
00:48So, yeah, I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.
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