Olympians Take Long Fossil Fueled Trips To D.C., Complain About ‘Climate Change’

Nothing like a good old fashioned case of climahypocrisy

In a visit to Capitol, Jessie Diggins and other Olympians push for climate change solutions

Olympian Jessie Diggins visited Capitol Hill with her four medals in hand Wednesday to advocate for clean air, clean water and a healthy planet.

America’s most decorated cross-country skier is part of “Protect Our Winters,” an athlete-driven environmental group that sent a coalition to Washington to meet with lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday. The group is most concerned with how the Environmental Protection Agency has weakened key climate, water and pollution regulations since President Donald Trump returned to office.

“I don’t want to stick my head in the sand and ignore the world burning,” Diggins said in an interview. “I feel like I have a responsibility to use my voice to advocate for change. And so that’s why it’s so important to me, because I want my great-grandkids to be able to build a snowman and try cross-country skiing someday, and be able go hiking and fishing and camping in the summer, and breathe clean air. I want that for them very badly.”

Diggins retired from professional ski racing this year after earning bronze in the women’s 10?kilometer interval start at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Many skiers expressed concern during these Olympic Games about climate change and the accelerating melt of the world’s glaciers. A warming world jeopardizes the future of their sport.

Diggins lives in Massachusetts. Did she drive an EV or take the train? Or a fossil fueled airplane? She and the rest of the athletes who went to Italy during the totally normal Modern Warm Period all took fossil fueled flights.

It’s not the typical lobbying group. Professional ski mountaineer Brody Leven only owns a suit to go to Washington with Protect Our Winters. But, he said, they are the ones who can hopefully bring people together around policy solutions to climate change.

“We’re good at looking at adversity in the face and still moving forward,” he said. “And we’re good at knowing something is going to be hard and trying to do it anyways.”

They met with Democrats and Republicans. Olympians Jaelin Kauf, Gus Schumacher, Bea Kim, Julia Kern and Olivia Giaccio were involved, Protect Our Winters said.

Did any of them take the train or EV? Leven came from Utah, as does Kauf. Then we have, in order, Alaska, California, Vermont, and Utah. And not one article I’ve read that is not from the AP, as above, nor the AP article above asked them how they traveled nor mentions their fossil fueled travel.