Jack Hughes is normally a laid back sort of guy, especially in interviews. It’s sort of his brand. The star forward for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils arrived in Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics facing nagging injuries and a chorus of skeptics who questioned whether he really belonged on Team USA. Over the ensuing two weeks, Hughes led his squad with four goals, adding three assists in the high-stakes international tournament. His older brother, Quinn Hughes, led the team in points with eight.
But not all goals are created equal. The gold medal game on Sunday was an epic showdown against archrival Canada. The Canadian team heavily outshot the United States, but American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stood on his head, stopping 41 of 42 shots he faced over three periods and sudden-death overtime. With the U.S. and Canada, it always seems to come down to overtime. Hellebuyck flat-out robbed Canadian players on several key occasions, setting the stage for a dramatic conclusion that will go down in American Olympic lore.
With everything on the line, Jack Hughes received a centering pass during a somewhat disjointed and nearly disastrous odd-man rush into the offensive zone. He beat the opponent’s goalie through the five-hole. It was over. The golden goal was buried in the back of Canada’s net, and the gold medal belonged to the U.S. American players mobbed each other on the ice, gloves and sticks flying in ecstatic celebration. Team USA fans roared and chanted. Watch parties back home erupted. Tears of joy were shed.
Amid the chaos, Jack Hughes was interviewed on NBC’s broadcast, his bloodied and shattered mouth, thanks to a nasty high stick he took to the face earlier in the game, grinning ear to ear. The monotone, “man-of-few-words” Jack Hughes was gone. He had something to say: “It’s all about our country right now. I love the USA,” he beamed. “I love my teammates. So proud of the Americans today. … USA Hockey brotherhood means so much. We are such a team. The brotherhood is so strong.” He was gushing. Who could blame him? His sudden-victory goal had lifted his country past the hockey juggernaut of Team Canada. According to Quinn Hughes, his brother had literally dreamed of that moment, and then he manifested it.
A photograph of the younger Hughes, drenched in sweat with Old Glory draped over his shoulders, his giant smile featuring a prominently chipped front tooth, instantly went viral. It immediately became one of the most iconic hockey, or Olympic, for that matter, images in American history. His heartfelt, adrenaline-fueled, hyperpatriotic interview also rocketed around the internet. Americans couldn’t get enough. What spilled out of his soul in that short clip served as deeply satisfying and affirming nourishment to the many fans who’d spent the previous weeks watching journalists flog a storyline about political divisions directed at, or emerging within, Team USA’s Olympic contingent. Members of the American “news” media dogged U.S. athletes with questions about whether they felt conflicted competing for the red, white, and blue “in these times.” Much of this was pure projection, as media members injected their own personal politics into the event, manufacturing a narrative they wanted to cover. Some Olympians took the bait, or were happy to get political in that way. Others awkwardly deflected. Many others either didn’t play along with the game or expressed pride in representing the country.
But to the “news” media, competing for America in our current era is tainted, given who is president of the United States — a man widely loathed in many of the country’s shrinking and distrusted newsrooms. Immigration enforcement controversy, also stoked by the press, was the hook they exploited, but they’d have invented one regardless. “Americans at the Olympics Can’t Escape the Politics at Home,” one characteristic New York Times headline blared. A HuffPost piece offered, “If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA!’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone.” Failed ESPN host-turned-full-time racial grievance monger Jamele Hill penned a piece for the Atlantic, which she advertised on social media thusly: “The Trump administration’s actions, particularly as it relates to ICE, forced some Winter Olympic athletes into an awkward position: How do you represent a country that presently doesn’t represent you?” How about with pride and gratitude, the exact same way countless right-leaning athletes have represented the U.S. while Democratic administrations were in power?
One theme circulating among online leftists as the Milan games wrapped up was that conservatives were clueless hypocrites for celebrating another gold medal performance. In addition to the men’s hockey team snapping a 46-year gold medal drought — kudos to the women’s team for also achieving gold, in similarly dramatic fashion over Canada, in overtime — figure skater Alysa Liu also ended a 24-year gap between American gold medals in her signature event. Throngs of Americans cheered her loudly, across the political spectrum. This young woman’s father escaped communist China. Unlike the villainous Eileen Gu, Liu reportedly rejected the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of seduction and intimidation to get her to skate under their flag. This is a very easy person to root for. But “progressives” pronounced themselves perplexed. “Why are these right-wingers celebrating her?” they taunted, as if this was a major “gotcha.” “Don’t they know she’s a product of immigration, and she’s woke like us?” This attitude misses every important point. Conservatives broadly love America, hate communism, and favor legal immigration.
Liu’s father participated in the courageous Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, against which the regime clamped down viciously. He was a bona fide refugee to this country. Years later, his daughter spurned CCP advances and skated for the stars and stripes. She did so proudly and joyfully in Italy — and became an Olympic champion and an overnight legend. The vast majority of conservatives couldn’t care less what her politics are, or how she votes. The Olympics are meant to transcend all of that, if only for a few weeks.
The ubiquitous “U-S-A” chant that echoes through sporting venues is not reserved for Trump voters. Indeed, it has nothing to do with President Donald Trump at all, just as it was never a verdict on former Presidents Joe Biden or Barack Obama, or any other politician. It is instead an expression of passion and loyalty for every American, even if some exhausting political obsessives insist upon interpreting it through a narrow-minded prism. Fortunately, the rest of us can cherish scenes of our flag being raised to the rafters and the Star Spangled Banner plays, our eyes dampened with emotion, as a thoroughly apolitical act. Because, to quote Jack Hughes, in those special moments, “it’s all about our country.” Amen. U-S-A! U-S-A!