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 pride for United States competitors and national shame for the federal government is common. Even U.S. Olympians competing in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games in Italy feel ambivalent about representing the stars and stripes.
“There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. Wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything going on in the U.S.,” said U.S. Olympics skier Hunter Hess, which prompted Trump to later label him as a “real loser” for his comments.
The cognitive dissonance of rooting for U.S. sports while hating the U.S. government is so common that “it continues to be one of the main topics I hold space for in therapy,” 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 shouldn’t ignore them. “Cognitive dissonance isn’t just ‘having mixed feelings,’” said Tanisha Ranger, a Nevada-based clinical psychologist. “It’s a psychological state that happens when someone holds two conflicting beliefs or values at the same time, or they are engaging in behaviors that contradict their values.”
“Our brains don’t like inconsistency, so it searches for ways to reduce that tension. Oftentimes, not [in] the healthiest of ways,” Ranger continued.
Watch Out For How This Tension Show Up In Your Body And Mind
In your mind, this tension might show up as an internal war of words. You might worry, “Why do I want them to win when I’m angry about what the country is doing?” Ranger said, or you might qualify your feelings with statements like, “I’m rooting for them, but…” You might even need to turn the game off right after a big moment because it suddenly feels all too complicated to keep rooting, Ranger added.
Ranger said it’s typical for people with this cognitive dissonance to feel a “weird mix of excitement and discomfort at the same time” that might feel like “a tightening in your chest or stomach when you realize you’re cheering and cringing simultaneously.”
This cognitive dissonance can cause physical symptoms, too, like a tightness in the neck, shoulder or jaw areas, as well as digestive issues and trouble sleeping, Monterrosa said.
The degree to which you feel shame and guilt right now for cheering U.S. Olympians might also depend on how much cognitive dissonance you have between the stated values of being American –– freedom, revolutionary spirit, opportunity for all –– versus how our government has actually acted in the hundreds of years since the U.S. was formed, said Lauren Appio, a psychologist and executive coach.
That’s why some people might not experience cognitive dissonance at all because what the U.S. government is doing to its citizens is not new for them. For these people, “They have already been exposed to the difference between what America claims to be versus what it is,” Appio said.
How To Honor Your Ambivalence While Rooting For U.S. Olympians
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There is no easy, tidy resolution to addressing these big feelings. Learning to move through cognitive dissonance means naming these emotions and letting 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 the athletes, you can strongly disagree with government policy, [and] you can feel both pride and disgust without needing to collapse that into one ‘correct’ feeling.”
“Don’t forget to breathe, we are all just trying to take things one day at a time while navigating too many uncertainties,” Monterrosa said.
One other way to live with this tension is to change your actions to align with your beliefs by focusing on the humanity of the athletes over a medal count.
“If waving the American flag or chanting, ‘USA!’ makes us feel grossed out or ashamed, we can cheer for individual athletes,” Appio said. “We can also learn more about their stories and the stories of athletes from around the world, and appreciate all they have done to get to the height of their sports.”
You could also find mutual aid campaigns to join and help educate yourself, so that you can ease the feelings of dissonance and disconnection, Monterrosa said.
Or follow the lead of Team USA women’s hockey player Kelly Pannek, who is from the Minneapolis area where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been detaining Americans with aggressive and sometimes violent tactics. She criticized the “unnecessary and just horrifying” actions of immigration enforcement right after federal agents fatally shot Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.
“It’s obviously really heavy,” Pannek said, per NPR. “What I’m most proud to represent is the tens of thousands of people that show up on some of the coldest days of the year to stand and fight for what they believe in.”
This is the kind of real-world acknowledgment that would serve us all well, therapists said.
These Olympians “acknowledged the tension, named it, held the complexity without letting it topple them. It’s the exact kind of nuance most people run from but really need to embrace,” Ranger said. “They showed that it’s absolutely possible to honor and exalt human effort and accomplishment without having to pretend that the political context doesn’t exist.”
