Flag American Man Chooses To Wave at Italy's Winter Olympics Goes Viral

[SunSeeker]

Last edited Tue Feb 10, 2026, 02:16 PM - Edit history (1)

A post about a spectator at a figure skating event in Milan holding up a United States flag with an apology message has gone viral on social media.

The post by Threads user @jedayal has amassed almost 1 million views since it was shared on February 9. In the caption accompanying the photo, the poster wrote: "This photo shows an American spectator at a figure skating event in Milan holding up a U.S. flag with a message apologizing to the world. A public acknowledgment, in a global space, that many of us do not consent to the damage being done in our name."

The image—credited in the post to Vincent Alban / The New York Times—shows a man raising a U.S. flag emblazoned with large capital letters that read: "Apologies to the world for our bad behavior, we will fix ourselves."

The viral post arrives at a moment of ongoing unrest and political tension across the U.S., striking a chord among viewers both within the country and abroad.

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/us-flag-apology-message-american-man-2026-winter-olympics-11490255

[Moostache]

1. There is a REAL AMERICAN...

Now juxtapose that image with masked ICE agents dragging people out of cars, executing citizens and terrorizing children.

If you are for the later and oppose the former, I cordially invite you to step back and fuck your own face.

[Cha]

2. This is Brilliant News.. Mahalo, SunSeeker &

the American in Milan, @jedayal on Threads,!

I love Patriots! ❤️💔☮️🌺🌻🕯️🕊️💜

[SunSeeker]

5. It gives me hope!

[Cha]

14. It Gives Me Hope, too.. It's Contagious! I'm so

glad and grateful you found it for us! 💔☮️🌺🌻🕯️🕊️💜and Bless that American Patriot in Milan and his Positiveness!

Happy it's Viral!!

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Please make that.....

TRUE patriots - not the evil, idiot frauds destroying the Constitution and individual rights in the ‘American dream’ that we so dearly love and want to share.

[sheshe2]

3. I 🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷 Love This!

[SunSeeker]

6. I love the optimism!

[Maru Kitteh]

4. NOT masked, I notice.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. ding . this

[orangecrush]

8. K&R

[surfered]

9. A patriot!!!

[mysteryowl]

10. THANK YOU

[Grim Chieftain]

11. Thank you, sir

I hope with all my heart that we will indeed fix ourselves.

[Skittles]

12. represents how the MAJORITY of us feel

yes INDEED

[MustLoveBeagles]

13. He's a patriot

And say'in what a lot of us are thinking.

[llmart]

15. No wonder Dipshit Donnie didn't attend.

He knew very well how he'd be greeted. It's happened to him at many, many places.

[Arthur_Frain]

17. Can I give that guy a heart?

Nt

[Wonder Why]

18. Awesome, just awesome! True patriotism.

[Shipwack]

19. Reminds me of the "I'm Sorry" posts that were made

On a dedicated website after Bush the Lesser was re-elected.

I contributed and even bought the book they made.

[electric_blue68]

37. Cool! I remember. It was a wonderful thing!

[niyad]

20. I recently saw a flag of the world. The top read, "Dear World, We Are So Sorry"

the bottom read, "Love, Sane Americans"

[JokeHer]

21. Can't wait to see

That small angry hateful orange man erupt into a rampage over this 😆

[Jimbo S]

22. Probably will be detained

when re-entering the U.S.

[SunSeeker]

23. Yes, that really is our country now.

[RockCreek]

24. American Individualism: "we will fix ourselves"

Although laudable, it has many down points too. And we are not fixing ourselves alone. We have help from many places. For example, Canada, both politically and with the choices of millions of individuals there to boycott US products, travel etc. France, going after Musk. And it goes on and on. We are not in this alone.

[SunSeeker]

25. I am glad we have help from many places.

We need all the help we can get.

[UpInArms]

26. Well done!

[LittleGirl]

27. Thanks for the photo

I couldn’t see the OP photo.

[JoseBalow]

28. This is what I see

[SunSeeker]

29. Weird. Do you see it below?

[Soul_of_Wit]

30. Can be seen here (n/m)

[SunSeeker]

31. Good. I added that link to OP.

Not sure why the original photo link didn't work for some people.

[LittleGirl]

34. I can see it on

My very old iPad but not on my newer Mac.

[JoseBalow]

33. Yes, I do see that.

That Postimages site has a quota for non-paid accounts, so after so many views that blue box is displayed instead of the image you tried to host there for free. There are some other sites that do the same thing too. After so many views of your post, that's what is displayed, though you might still be able to see it if it's cached.

I can see the image above, but if you just re-uploaded it for free on the same site, that might also get blocked after so many views. Best is to use a different image hosting service for high traffic sites and forums like DU, or you could get a premium account with Postimages if you want to pay for it I suppose.

[SunSeeker]

35. What other picture hosting service do you recommend? nt

[JoseBalow]

36. I'm not sure if they have started using quotas

but my go-to free image hosting is usually imgBB or Imgur

[Emrys]

41. IMGUR blocks traffic to the UK, so DUers there won't see whatever image you post

See here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220941820

[JoseBalow]

42. I didn't know that

Thanks for letting me know, I won't be using them any longer.

[Emrys]

43. Many thanks.

It's surprising how many folks on DU do use IMGUR. When they do, all we in the UK see is:

[JoseBalow]

44. This is the image they show?

A GIF from Aliens? Weird...

[Emrys]

45. Any image from IMGUR displays in the UK as a purple rectangle

with the words "Content not viewable in your region" in white. This should render properly for you (it's larger than what we see):

[orleans]

32. reminds me of the heartbreaking website years ago after bush 2004

sorryeverybody.com

[ornotna]

38. Is this for real?

The header and the fly end are reversed.
I like the sentiment behind it but it looks odd.

[SunSeeker]

40. Definitely real. Photo is by Getty Images.

Read more at the Newsweek link in the OP.

[Ping Tung]

39. Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to. Mark Twain