Republicans will tell you that they are very supportive of women in sports; in fact, it’s the entire basis (so they say) of their opposition to trans people. In their tiny imaginations, trans women are just men who can’t compete successfully against men, so they transition so they can win sports competitions, and this is Bad because that hurts women’s sports.

Yeah, that’s nuts, but that’s their position. It’s why they’ve made Riley “Tied For Fifth” Gaines their poster child because we need to make sports safe for whiny white cisgendered women.

Now, women won most of the US medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, so one would expect that the MAGAts would rally around them, right?

Amber Glenn missed an element in her short program, where certain elements and only those elements could be performed. She rebounded to finish fifth overall with one of the highest technical (if not the highest) score of the long program. It was a testament to her grit and determination. Surely the patriotic MAGA Americans who love women’s sports were there to support her, right? Nope.

There was a lot of that on social media because Glenn is out as a queer woman and has spoken frankly about what it’s like to be LGBTQ in this fascist climate. The backlash for her simply being factual was just disgusting. There were also people saying that the team skating gold medal that Glenn won wasn’t really a gold medal because she was part of a…team. I’m sure that would come as a surprise to the women’s teams who won gold medals at the Olympics.

And there was a lot of support from MAGAts for gold medal winner Alysa Liu once they got a hold of this quote:

Oh, they were off to the races and hold Liu up as the example of a female athlete who knew her place and who they were sure hated all the same people she did. Liu was the perfect MAGA female sports hero because she was anti-woke, and as a bonus she was the daughter of an immigrant of who came here the “right” way. Now none of those assumptions actually fit who Liu is, and the quote was quickly debunked as fake. Oops. Nonetheless the MAGAts are sure that deep down Liu is One Of Them, so it’s only a matter of time before they turn on her.

And MAGA was quick to claim Elena Meyers Taylor because she spoke about her faith during her post-race interview. Somehow they missed she is a woman of color raising 2 deaf children and might have thoughts about how people of color and people with disabilities are faring under Republican rule.

All of this has come to a head with how the president and MAGA have treated the US women’s hockey team, whose stunning and exciting victory in the gold medal game was only acknowledged as an afterthought in that shameful locker room scene with Kash Patel. And their refusal to give up their dignity and credibility by accepting Trump’s snide invitation is inspiring. Trump is a misogynist, a sexual assaulter, an adjudicated rapist, and almost certainly a pedophile.

No one should lend him one ounce of their self-respect or integrity by showing up at anything he is hosting. Ever. And so the women’s team spoke with one voice and said they had to wash their hair that night. And all of the same MAGAts who are so concerned about women’s sports only being for cisgendered women and who said we all had to respect the opinions of cisgendered women who knew what was best for their sports turned on the team. Who will think about the women in sports, indeed. It is fascinating to see how desperate MAGA is to claim one positive female role model.

In the meantime, the men’s team slobbered all over the slimy FBI director and thought they were hot shit because they were going to the White House. And once there, this was how they were feted:

Mmm, cold fast food.

The women’s team was invited to lunch by Stanley Tucci, and they dined at one of his favorite restaurants in Milan. If you’ve watched his excellent series on CNN, you know that he definitely knows what and where to eat in Italy. It looked like fun:

To their credit, some of the men are realizing they fucked up—from this morning:

Members of the gold-medal winning Team USA men’s hockey team have faced backlash when laughs erupted as President Donald Trump joked he would also need to invite the women’s team to the White House for winning the gold medal otherwise he “probably would be impeached.”

Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who was part of Team USA’s gold-medal winning team, regrets the reaction.

“We should have reacted differently. We know that,” Swayman said. “We are so excited for the women’s team. We have so much respect for the women’s team, and to share that gold medal with them is something that we’re forever grateful for. And now that we’re home, we get to share that together forever and see the incredible support that we have from the USA and sharing this incredible gold medal.”

But it’s too little, too late and the damage to the men’s Olympic team is done.

I’ll leave you with this: