Snubbed by White House, Skier Hunter Hess Turns President’s Insult Into Youth Initiative

American skier Hunter Hess was not at the White House on Thursday night when President Trump hosted more than 120 Team USA Winter Olympians and Paralympians to acknowledge their accomplishments at the Milano Cortina Games earlier this year.Mr. Trump praised the assembled American athletes for earning 57 total medals, including 25 gold medals, calling them the “greatest group of Olympians in American history.”“I like being with stars,” Mr. Trump said. “I like being with winners.”Mr. Hess, who finished 10th in the halfpipe at Milano, was left off the list of attendees in Washington after Mr. Trump branded him “a real loser,” for comments he made in Italy.When asked by reporters in Italy about competing during a time of heightened domestic tension and fierce federal immigration enforcement back home, Mr. Hess had said he had “mixed emotions” representing the United States. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the United States,” he said.His comments went viral and the backlash was vicious. Being branded “a real loser” by the president made his Olympic experience the “hardest two weeks of his life,” he said.The impact of his words continues today. While his fellow Olympians were being feted at the White House this week — posing for photos and receiving presidential praise — Mr. Hess worked on turning his personal adversity into public good.Instead of hiding from the insult, Mr. Hess formed “The Real Loser Project,” a non-profit initiative aimed at helping underserved youth find confidence, resilience, and community through sports and mentorship. Launched in May, “The Real Loser Project,” has raised funds through the sale of hats and T-shirts. The proceeds are used by STOKED, another non-profit, to invest in coaches and mentors who will teach youth interested in skiing to follow a “positive career path.”Mr. Hess, 27, has tried to view the presidential condemnation as a unique platform rather than a career-defining moment. “It’s put me in this position of opportunity to reach so many people,” he said in an interview with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. “Whether they love me or hate me, it gave me the ability to reach them and for them to sit down and listen to my words. That was a big, big piece of coming up with The Real Loser Project.”Few could have blamed Mr. Hess for wanting to put his Olympic experience in the rearview mirror after all that happened in Italy. Instead, he wanted to make it have some significance.“You have people’s attention for only so long, and it will probably be the most exposure I ever have,” he said. “So why not turn it into something positive? They can hate my words yet again, but at least they’ll know about a good cause that’s going toward something bigger than myself.”Mr. Hess said his comments were never meant to minimize his pride at representing the United States at the Winter Games.“It was never about me trying to be defiant against the U.S. or anything like that,” he said. “It was me speaking up in a sensitive time and answering the question that was asked, doing so to the best of my ability while holding my morals in the right place, trying to speak from the heart and speak with honesty and be a genuine human being, because that’s how I always was.”In Washington, Mr. Trump hailed his visiting Olympians and Paralympians for their historic performance, securing the most ever gold medals in a single year. The Americans also earned their most total medals (33) ever in a Winter Olympics outside North America.The Paralympians earned 24 medals, including 13 gold.“We’re truly delighted to welcome perhaps the greatest group of winter Olympians in American history,” Mr. Trump said. “These men and women sacrificed years of their lives and countless early mornings to be the best in the world. They did it for the highest privilege in all sports wearing the red, white and blue, while representing those three proud letters on their uniforms: U.S.A.”During the ceremony Mr. Trump praised the United States’ hosting of the recent FIFA World Cup, calling it the “greatest, most successful World Cup they’ve ever had by far,” and complimented Andrew Giuliani, the head of the World Cup Task Force, for the “flawless” execution of the tournament. “We didn’t have a problem,” he said. “We’re so proud of it.”Mr. Trump also pointed to the scheduled 2028 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles and the 2034 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City. “We got a lot of action going,” he said.Meanwhile, Mr. Hess continues with a project that has given him purpose. “Looking back now, I honestly think releasing this project helped me finally close the chapter on the Olympics emotionally,” he wrote in an article for Teen Vogue.“The experience was just so different than anything I ever imagined it could be. It was painful and overwhelming, and surreal in ways I still don’t fully know how to explain. But I think it also clarified what actually matters to me moving forward.”

Snubbed by White House, Skier Hunter Hess Turns President’s Insult Into Youth Initiative

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