JD Vance booed by crowd at Winter Olympic opening ceremony
The US Vice President attended the opening ceremony in Milan, where the star-packed event also saw fans hit out at Mariah Carey over something they noticed as she sang
JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance watch the spectacle at the San Siro Stadium (Image: PA)
US Vice President JD Vance was booed by fans during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Italy. As the US competitors marched into the arena, a mixture of boos, jeers and cheers rang out around the venue.
And the hostile reaction grew considerably more intense when Vance and his wife Usha were shown on the big screen inside the San Siro stadium in Milan on Friday.
When the cameras returned to the USA’s athletes, warmer applause could be heard, providing some reassurance to the Winter Olympians. But it underscored the political tensions currently casting a shadow over the sporting spectacle.
This wasn’t Vance’s first appearance at this year’s competition. The Ohio politician, who is being touted as a potential Republican candidate for the 2028 US elections, had earlier attended an ice hockey match in Milan.
He was accompanied by current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another possible contender for the 2028 Republican nomination. Organisers had expected protests at the fixture and the appearance of Israel’s delegation inside the San Siro was also greeted with boos from the crowd.
Both Vance and Rubio attended the match with Olympic gold medal-winning hockey sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, accompanied by a substantial contingent of US Secret Service agents. There were significant concerns about possible political demonstrations targeting the US administration, reports the Mirror.
In Italy, speculation has emerged suggesting that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could be operating in Milan and Cortina throughout the games. Nevertheless, Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi rejected these allegations in a statement to the Chamber of Deputies: “ICE does not and will never be able to carry out operational police activities on our national territory.”
He explained that during the Milan-Cortina Games, ICE officers would solely participate in analysis and intelligence sharing with Italian authorities. He also stressed that their involvement is “not a sudden and unilateral initiative,” which might potentially breach Italian sovereignty.
The US has dispatched a record-setting delegation of 232 athletes competing across 16 disciplines to the games in Italy, representing the biggest squad ever sent by the USA in their Winter Olympic history.
Elsewhere in the star-studded opening ceremony, Taylor Swift stunned viewers with a message of good luck to the athletes competing. ‘I just wanted to send a message to all of the athletes who are competing in the Olympics. I just wanted to say thank you.”
And while Andrea Bocelli wowed the Italian crowd with his majestic vocals, one singer left fans fuming with her apparent lip-syncing. Mariah Carey, 56, kicked off proceedings at the major sporting spectacle with a performance of the timeless number ‘Volare’.
The Grammy-winning artist wore a flowing white gown for the event, but social media users claimed the diva wasn’t actually performing live. One posted on X: “Mariah Carey looks bored of lip syncing. This could be remedied by actually singing,” while another commented: “Thought it was the fault of the sound engineer as well, but clearly the mic/audio does work as we can see from the lady in black dress Think Mariah is just awful at lip syncing and incredibly lazy.”
A third exclaimed: “Witnessing Mariah Carey at the Olympics2026 Opening Ceremony…she is stiff, lip syncing and looks like she’s reading off a teleprompter!” and a fourth added: “I found Mariah’s performance underwhelming at best!”
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