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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Sean Ingle in Milan

‘Distracting and sad’: Olympics chief laments ICE protests and Epstein fallout

IOC president Kirsty Coventry
IOC president Kirsty Coventry insists the Games’ ‘magic and spirit’ will take over when they start. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The International Olympic Committee has admitted that it is “distracting and sad” that the buildup to the Winter Olympics has been dominated by the deployment of ICE agents to Milan-Cortina and the appearance of the Los Angeles 2028 chair, Casey Wasserman, in the Epstein files. However Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president, insisted that once the Games begin on Friday, their “magic and spirit” would take over.

Coventry refused to comment directly on the protests in Milan against immigration and customs enforcement agents and said she hadn’t spoken to Wasserman, who has apologised for flirty emails sent to Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003 when he was married, which only surfaced on Friday.

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