While President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda separates families and federal agents detain 5-year-olds and kill unarmed civilians, American athletes are winning medals on behalf of the nation at the Olympics right now.
This whiplash between the pride of United States competitors and the national shame of the federal government is common. Even the U.S. Olympians competing in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games in Italy feel ambivalent about representing the stars and stripes.
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“Obviously there’s a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. Carrying the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US,” said US Olympic skier Hunter Hess, prompting Trump to later label him a “real loser” for his comments.
The cognitive dissonance of rooting for American sports while hating the U.S. government is so common that “it continues to be one of the main topics I have in therapy for,” said Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social worker Aimee Monterrosa. “As we continue to witness national and global atrocities in real time … it can trigger feelings of guilt, despair, shame, anger.”
Although these feelings are common, you should not ignore them. “Cognitive dissonance isn’t just ‘having mixed feelings,'” said Tanisha Ranger, a clinical psychologist in Nevada. “It’s a psychological state that happens when someone holds two conflicting beliefs or values at the same time, or engages in behaviors that contradict their values.”
“Our brains don’t like inconsistency, so they look for ways to reduce that tension. Often, we don’t [in] the healthiest of methods,” Ranger continued.
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Notice how this tension manifests in your body and mind
In your mind, this tension might appear as an internal war of words. You might worry, “Why do I want them to win when I’m upset about what the country is doing?” Ranger said, or you might qualify your feelings with statements like, “I support them, but…” You might even need to stop the game right after a big moment because it suddenly seems too complicated to continue, Ranger added.
Ranger said it’s typical for people with this cognitive dissonance to feel a “strange mix of excitement and discomfort at the same time” that might feel like “a tightness in the chest or stomach when you realize you’re cheering and cheering at the same time.”
This cognitive dissonance can also cause physical symptoms, such as tightness in the neck, shoulder or jaw areas, as well as digestive problems and sleep problems, Monterrosa said.
The degree to which you feel ashamed and guilty right now for cheering on American Olympians might also depend on how much cognitive dissonance you have between the stated values of being an American — freedom, revolutionary spirit, opportunity for all — versus how our government has actually operated in the hundreds of years since the U.S. was formed, said Lauren Appio, a psychologist and executive coach.
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Therefore, some people may not experience cognitive dissonance at all because what the US government is doing to its citizens is not new to them. For these people, “They’ve already been exposed to the difference between what America claims to be and what it is,” Appio said.
How to honor your ambivalence while rooting for the American Olympians
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Above, Team USA hockey player Kelly Pannek (#12) competes in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Pannek has been one of the most vocal people about the strain of representing the US at these Games. Jamie Squire via Getty Images
There is no easy, neat resolution to addressing these big feelings. Learning to move through cognitive dissonance means naming those emotions and letting the complexity exist, Ranger said.
“You can hold more than one truth at the same time,” Ranger said. “You can admire the discipline and sacrifice of athletes, you can strongly disagree with government policy, [and] you can feel both pride and disgust without having to collapse into a single “correct” feeling.
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“Remember to breathe, we’re all trying to take things one step at a time as we navigate so many uncertainties,” Monterrosa said.
Another way to live with this tension is to change your actions to align with your beliefs by focusing on the humanity of athletes over a medal count.
“If they’re waving the American flag or chanting, ‘USA!’ makes us feel disappointed or ashamed, we can encourage individual athletes,” Appio said. “We can also learn more about their stories and those of athletes around the world and appreciate all that they have done to reach the pinnacle of their sports.”
You can also find mutual aid campaigns to join and help educate each other so you can ease feelings of dissonance and disconnection, Monterrosa said.
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Or follow the example of Team USA women’s hockey player Kelly Pannek, who is from the Minneapolis area, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained Americans with aggressive and sometimes violent tactics. She criticized the “unnecessary and just appalling” actions of immigration authorities immediately after federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.
“It’s obviously very hard,” Pannek said, according to NPR. “What I’m most proud to represent are the tens of thousands of people who show up on some of the coldest days of the year to fight for what they believe in.”
That’s the kind of real-world recognition that would benefit us all, the therapists said.
These Olympians “acknowledged the tension, named it, kept the complexity without letting it topple them. It’s exactly the kind of nuance that most people run away from, but really have to embrace,” Ranger said. “They showed that it’s absolutely possible to honor and exalt human effort and achievement without having to pretend that the political context doesn’t exist.”
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