Vance and Rubio will also attend Friday's Opening Ceremony.
MILAN — Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio watched the United States’ women’s hockey team take on Czechia on Thursday, the first stop in a trip planned to include a visit to the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony Friday night.
Rubio sat in the third row off the ice, and Vance the fourth, and both cheered as the United States jumped out to an early lead.
At the Opening Ceremony, Vance’s delegation is expected to include Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. Also slated to be part of the U.S. delegation: American gold medal-winning athletes including figure skater Evan Lysacek, hockey players Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando and speed skater Apolo Ohno.
After the Olympics, Vance will travel to Armenia and Azerbaijan to attempt to broker a peace agreement.
Vance arrived in Italy amid ongoing and planned protests of the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Olympics. However, Italian Minister Matteo Piantedosi told the Italian parliament earlier this week that only agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division, which investigates cross-border crimes, would be present in Milan. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chief Security Officer Nicole Deal said Thursday morning that ICE agents will “unequivocally” not be connected with the United States’ athlete delegation.
There’s a long tradition of vice presidents and other dignitaries representing the United States at both Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Former Vice President Joe Biden attended the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and former Vice President Mike Pence represented the United States at the Opening Ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. Then-First Lady Jill Biden attended the Paris Olympics in 2024, where she took in, among other events, a women’s water polo match alongside Flavor Flav. The United States did not send then-vice president Kamala Harris or any other delegates to China in 2022 as a diplomatic protest over China’s human rights abuses.
Category: General Sports
