The Olympics have the power to bring people of the same country together to celebrate the accomplishments of their athletes. Perhaps not surprisingly, the current Winter Olympics in Italy are generating divisive political talk across social media.

The excitement of the Winter Olympics in Italy this year is a welcome relief from the northern hemisphere's cold weather and--hopefully--the stress and strife found in the participants' home countries.

But Rolli IQ, now with access to Meta social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, shows social media filled with political statements aimed mainly at the United States and Israel, two powers whose recent actions on the world stage have angered many.

Using Rolli IQ to compare social media traffic concerning these games with the 2022 games in China shows a significant difference in the volume and rancor of political posts about the games. Using Rolli IQ's Topic Tree function, the analysis of posts about the the 2026 games from the opening ceremony through Monday shows six subcategories of political comment across social media platforms, including athletes' political statements, politicians attending the games, participation by Israel, Russia's ban from these games, "woke" culture at the games and crowds booing certain political figures.

In particular, political statements or demonstrations by athletes seemed to draw the ire of many conservatives in the U.S. One Topic Tree entry with many such posts featured reaction to statements of patriotism or protest by the athletes.

Typical of these posts was anger over athletes' statements that they were of "mixed emotions" representing the United States at these games at a time when the country was involved in what those athletes saw as many questionable actions at home and abroad.

One post making the rounds in this vein was so ludicrous by physiological standards (though the skier in question did post it, regardless of what he used to inscribe the message) other users couldn't help but make fun of it.

Vice President J.D. Vance's appearance at the opening ceremonies was also a central point of controversy. Vance's opponents used their platforms to point out the negative reaction toward the politician on the world stage, while those on the right tried to say the booing never happened--despite reports NBC cut the booing portion of the audio from its feed of the event.

The United States wasn't the only target of online protest and attacks. Israel was also singled out for its roll in the conflict in Gaza and drew questions of why it wasn't banned in the same way Russia was for its invasion of Ukraine.

Using Rolli IQ to go back to look at the 2022 Winter Olympics in China found it not without political controversy, but also nothing at the level of what is found on social media today. With a different administration in the U.S. White House, host nation China took the brunt of the negative political comments, which boiled down to just three Topic Tree categories: political controversies, mask debates and boycotts.

Still in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, the ire in North America turned toward Canada and the actions of its athletes and the prime minister's stance on masks and vaccines.

One of the few instances in which social media turned on the United States during the 2022 Winter Games was over the diplomatic boycott the U.S. organized with some of its allies, agreeing to still send athletes to the games, but not have any political figures attend. The boycott was meant to support the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. That brought a scoffing response from one critic.

The bottom line is that Rolli IQ analysis of social media trends for both the current Olympics and the 2022 winter games shows the 2026 games much more beset with online anger over U.S. policies, Israel's participation and the political actions of athletes competing in the games.

Politics follow Olympics to Italy

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