EMILY KWONG, HOST:
The Winter Olympics are officially underway after an opening ceremony headlined by Andrea Bocelli, Mariah Carey and those dancing coffee pots. NPR's Rachel Treisman was watching from inside Milan's San Siro Stadium, and she joins me now to talk about how it went and what comes next. Rachel, sounds like you're out and about in Milan. Hello.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: Hello from Milan.
KWONG: You've covered several Olympics opening ceremonies from afar, but what was it like to be there in person?
TREISMAN: In a word, incredible. It was much louder and colder than I expected having watched it on TV. I blame the partially open stadium roof and also...
KWONG: Ah.
TREISMAN: ...The musical performances for literally giving me chills. There were some moments that made the whole crowd gasp, like when the fireworks exploded out of the Olympic rings and when Bocelli hit that one note. You know what I'm talking about?
KWONG: I do.
TREISMAN: Some of the loudest cheers, of course, came for the athletes themselves, which was awesome to be in the room for, especially the teams from Italy, Ukraine and the U.S., which, of course, has the biggest delegation here and got a ton of applause.
KWONG: There were also some boos, too, is that right?
TREISMAN: That's right, mostly for the Israeli delegation. And again briefly when the camera panned over Vice President JD Vance in the stands. He was there with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. There had been concern that anti-ICE protests and just anti-U.S. sentiment in general could prove disruptive. The booing was loud but relatively short-lived. And Olympic officials, of course, touched on this current moment in their speeches. They called for unity in these divisive times and pointed to athletes to set an example for that.
KWONG: Some U.S. Olympians have spoken out in recent days, but it sounds like last night was mostly just a chance for people to come together and have fun. Like, the theme was harmony, armonia, right?
TREISMAN: Mm-hmm. Just good vibes all around. It was amazing to see the parade of nations especially, so all of the different countries represented - all 92 of them - what they were rocking. So Canada had those puffers. Germany was wearing ponchos. Of course, I hope we all saw Brazil's dance moves.
But I just want to point out, a lot of the action wasn't actually in the stadium where I was. So a lot of these Olympians were marching in the clusters where they're competing, like Cortina. And so those of us in the stadium were watching all of them marching on the TV screens around us.
KWONG: Yeah, I got to say, it was cool to watch at home to see the teams in different locations 'cause the camera was almost cutting between different fashion shows, like, different catwalks. What did you think about Team USA's outfits? I kind of want one of those jackets.
TREISMAN: You and many other people I've talked to about this. For those who have missed it, the Team USA opening ceremony was this all-white look with these wool coats and wool trousers and then these really cozy-looking turtlenecks with the American flag and the Olympic rings on them. And those were designed by Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren is outfitting all U.S. Olympians and Paralympians, which has been the case for running on close to two decades now.
KWONG: Wow.
TREISMAN: I actually got to see some of that behind-the-scenes magic. I went to the airport hotel that was temporarily rebranded as the Team USA Welcome Experience a few days before the opening ceremony, and I got to see how Ralph Lauren manages to tailor two different ceremony outfits for hundreds of athletes in a matter of just days. One of the people getting fitted there was U.S. freestyle skier Tess Johnson, and she told me her outfits from her first Olympics are still being put to good use.
TESS JOHNSON: I have 22 people coming to cheer me on, and some of them are going to be wearing my 2018 stuff. So, like, my sister sent me a selfie of her in the opening ceremonies sweater from 2018, so she'll be repping the vintage stuff.
KWONG: Nice. Well, some events did get underway earlier this week, but starting today, medals are officially up for grabs, many of those in skiing. How did the U.S. do?
TREISMAN: To be honest, it was kind of a disappointing day for American skiers. In the men's downhill, the top U.S. finisher, Kyle Negomir, placed tenth, and his teammates, Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran-Siegle, finished farther off the podium. On the cross-country side of things, American superstar Jessie Diggins finished eighth in the skiathlon, and that's a race that she was heavily favored to win going into.
On the bright side for Team USA, there is way more skiing to come. Today was the second and final practice run for the women's downhill. American Breezy Johnson had the fastest downhill practice run of the day. And, of course, we have to talk about Lindsey Vonn. She finished third, even with her torn ACL from a crash in a competition last week. So those are all good signs heading into tomorrow's highly anticipated medal race.
KWONG: What else will you be watching, Rachel, this weekend?
TREISMAN: Besides skiing, there are a bunch more medal events happening tomorrow in a ton of sports - speed skating, snowboarding, luge and, of course, figure skating, where the team event is playing out this weekend.
KWONG: Ooh, my favorite.
TREISMAN: I hope we get to talk a lot more 'cause I'll be watching. It's a three-day competition that starts everything off. It basically involves the top 10 countries. They each choose a skater or, in some cases, of course, a duo to represent the main disciplines of women's, men's pairs and ice dance. And then the country with the top overall score wins. The U.S. was that country in 2022, and it's looking to defend its gold medal. It actually finished out Day 1 on top of the scoreboard.
KWONG: Wow.
TREISMAN: But of course there are still two more days to go and plenty of competition, including from Japan, which is, at this point, Team USA's biggest rival on the rink.
KWONG: That's NPR's Rachel Treisman, who is writing a daily newsletter about what it is like to go experience the games in person. It's called Rachel Goes To The Games, and you can subscribe to it at npr.org/wintergames. Rachel, have an amazing day.
TREISMAN: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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