Olympians bring medals to Washington to lobby Congress

WASHINGTON – Jessie Diggins pulled the Olympic medals out of her bag, between meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Yes, she said with a smile, they’re pretty useful conversation starters.

Two months after winning silver and bronze at the Beijing Games, Diggins was among a handful of current and former Winter Olympians who came to Washington to lobby members of Congress to act on climate change – an issue they believe is an existential threat to their sports.

In meetings last Thursday with several lawmakers – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska – they pushed for updates to the nation’s power grid and an increase in the production of electric vehicles, among other policies.

“It’s really important to use these medals that we’re carrying around to make sure that we get in the door – that we get in front of people who are able to vote on these huge policies that impact all of us,” Diggins, 30, told USA TODAY Sports.

The meetings were coordinated by nonprofit group Protect Our Winters, which aims to rally the winter sports community around climate issues.

Some of the athletes planned to remain in Washington until this Wednesday, when they’ll visit the White House alongside hundreds of other Olympians from the most recent Summer and Winter Games.

Diggins, a three-time Olympic medalist, has previously described winter sports athletes as the “canaries in the coal mine” on climate issues – the folks who see melting glaciers and diminishing snowpack while training and competing around the world.

“It’s become more and more frequent that competitions are getting canceled because of a lack of snow,” added Nordic combined athlete Jared Shumate. “It’s past the point where man-made snow can save us. It’s too warm to make snow, which is insane.”

Shumate said it felt odd that his Winter Olympics debut came in Beijing, a place that he described as “very winterfree,” where organizers had to rely entirely on human-made snow for competition venues. He cited a recent study on past hosts of the Winter Games, which found that only one – Sapporo, Japan – will have a climate reliable enough to host the event again at the end of the century, barring a reduction in carbon emissions.

“(Though) the consequences are going to be far more dire than me not being able to do my hobby,” said David Wise, a two-time gold medalist in freestyle skiing.

Wise acknowledged that he, like other high-profile Olympians, has “felt a little lost” in the past few months since returning from Beijing. He hopes to make his fourth trip to the Games in Milan in 2026.

“You have this big up and this big adrenaline rush, and then of course you have the comedown afterwards,” Diggins added. “But that’s why things like this are so cool. It gives you purpose. It’s not just like ‘cool, what now?’ It’s like, ‘I’m going to try to use my experience at the Olympics to try to do something so meaningful and important to me.’ ”