Rep. Jamie Allard: Celebrating the good in the Olympics

By REP. JAMIE ALLARD

The Olympic Games have always been about more than medals. They are about nations coming together because we recognize athletic competition can transcend politics and strife.

The Olympics are supposed to be a moment when the world pauses and watches human beings do what the rest of us can only marvel at: skate the fastest, endure the longest, and push a body beyond what anyone thought possible. I fondly recall my own days as a Junior Olympics track and field athlete, and the unforgettable moments of hard training and achievement.

That’s why it’s disappointing to many of us when some athletes use the Olympic stage not to represent the USA with pride, but to trash the very nation that gave them the freedom, opportunity, and support to reach that level in the first place.

No country is perfect and America is no exception. But the United States remains the greatest engine of opportunity in the history of the world. If you are wearing “USA” across your chest, you should understand what that means.

It means gratitude, responsibility, and remembering that millions of Americans back home are cheering for you.

And here in Alaska, we understand those ideals deeply. Our patriotism runs deep.

One of the brightest stories of these Winter Games is the strong presence of athletes with deep Alaska ties, particularly in Nordic skiing and endurance sports.

From the Alaska Pacific University’s ski program to the trails of Anchorage and Fairbanks, and to Eaglecrest in Juneau (home mountain of silver medalist Olympian Hilary Lindh), Alaska has one of the strongest winter sports cultures in the nation. Our athletes train in conditions most of the world could never tolerate, and they come out tougher for it.

When Alaskans line up at the starting gate, they aren’t bringing entitlement. These athletes remind the rest of the country that greatness can come from the ski trails behind a public school.

Alaska is proud of them — and they are doing our state proud.

At the same time, many Americans continue to have serious concerns about the direction of the International Olympic Committee, particularly when it comes to protecting women’s sports.

Women fought for generations to have their own categories, their own recognition, and their own rightful place on the world’s biggest athletic stage. Those protections should not be weakened by policies that ignore biological reality.

The IOC has pushed these decisions off onto individual sports federations, creating a patchwork of inconsistent rules. It’s all fragmented, depending on the sport.

That is not sustainable, and it is not fair to female athletes.

We are hopeful that the IOC will find the courage this year to restore clarity, protect women’s categories, and put competitive integrity back at the center of sport.

Although some Americans have soured on the Olympics due to the behavior of a few athletes and the decision to allow transgenders to compete against women, the Olympics is worth fighting for and worth saving. The games will always be fundamentally about what the human spirit can do. They remind us what America can be: strong, united, striving, grateful. Something we are not seeing enough of these days.

We’ve been here before, enduring the “black power” salutes on the podium in 1968, and the “take a knee” era. Let’s cheer for the athletes who represent our country with pride and just roll our eyes at the ones who have used the microphone to abuse our country.

But let’s especially lift up the Alaskans who carry our state’s toughness into the world and represent not only our country, but our great northern state of Alaska.

Rep. Jamie Allard has served in the Alaska House of Representatives since 2022 and on the Anchorage Assembly before that. She is a US Army veteran and former Junior Olympian.