Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
Remarks at a Reception for United States Olympic and Paralympic Athletes and an Exchange With Reporters
August 6, 2026
The President. Great athletes. Great athletes. Thank you very much.
It's a real honor to be with stars. I like being with stars. I like being with winners. You're winners like nobody. Thank you very much. Fantastic. It's fantastic.
Today we're truly honored to welcome to the White House perhaps the greatest group of Winter Olympians in American history.
At the 2026 Olympic Games, Team U.S.A. won more gold medals than any American Winter Olympic team has ever won before. And what an amazing achievement.
Not bad. [Laughter] That's not bad. Fantastic. That's pretty good, isn't it, huh? We had some good teams too.
We're also honored to be joined by many of the members of the U.S. Paralympic team, who are fantastic—I watched so much of that—and showed unbelievable strength and persistence and skill and brought home an incredible 13 Paralympic gold medals to America. Congratulations.
That's a lot of medals. It's a record. [Applause] Fantastic. That's great. That's a record.
Along with the athletes, I want to thank the Team U.S.A. coaches and staff members who are here today, as well as CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees, Sarah Hirshland. Sarah, wherever you may be. Where—thank you. Please, stand up. Great. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you very much.
Treasurer of the United States—well, and this is a very good friend of mine. Where is Brandon? Brandon Beach. He's the—that's a good—that's a good position. Treasurer—think of that: Treasurer of the United States of America. That's good. He controls a lot of money. [Laughter]
And the Director of the United States Mint, Paul Hollis. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Great
job.
So, last February, these incredible Olympians traveled to Northern Italy, and they returned
home to America wearing 9 bronze medals, 12 silver medals, and a record 12 Winter Olympic golds. Nothing like that. That was the alltime record.
These men and women sacrificed years of their lives and countless early mornings to be the best in the world. That's right. I guess you get up early in the morning, don't you? [Laughter] I remember those days, but I didn't do it as well as you. Not quite. It's really something. And they were early mornings.
And they did it for the highest privilege in all of sports: wearing the Red, White, and Blue, while representing those three proud letters on their uniform. It's called "U.S.A.," and that's what you did.
Among the great medalists with us this evening is one of those who helped bring home the team figure skating gold, Danny O'Shea. Where's Danny O'Shea? Where is Danny? Where is Danny? Huh? Not—not bad, Danny. That's pretty good.
I watched that one. Great going, Danny. You look better in person, if you want to know—[laughter]—when it mattered most, Danny skated the best he has ever skated.
Would you say that was the best you've ever—the best? You're never going to do it again.
Are you going to do it again? You'll do it again. Do it again. [Laughter] That's great.
But he said it was the best he ever skated—and other people too—in his entire life. And his performance helped the U.S. edge out Japan, who's a very great team, in the team event by a single point, 69 to 68.
And I want to just say again, because I watched that: Danny, well done. And the whole team, well done. That's incredible. That's incredible. Thank you. That's great.
Also with us is the single most decorated American Olympian from the 2026 games, speed skater Jordan Stolz. And I watched that one too. His legs—strong legs. Very strong legs, Jordan. [Laughter] I said, "How do I get my legs to look like that?" [Laughter] I don't have any time to work like that. But it's—you were amazing.
In historic victories, Jordan broke the Olympic record in the men's 500-meter, 1,000-meter speed skating, winning double gold medals. In addition, Jordan brought home the silver in the 1,500-meter competition, and he just did a great job. Everybody's still talking about it.
So Jordan, where are you, Jordan?
And I met Jordan before, and he's a fantastic young man. Great future.
We also have the gold medal champion in women's moguls, Elizabeth Lemley. I don't know how you do that, Elizabeth. That's amazing stuff. Where is Elizabeth?
Skier Elizabeth Lemley. Hello. [Laughter]
The President. Elizabeth?
Along with gold medal-winning mixed aerial freestyle skiing team, consisting of Christopher Lillis, Connor Curran, and Kaila Kuhn. Thank you very much. Wow. Where are you all? Good job. [Applause] Great job.
I also have to mention the team that won perhaps the greatest victory on the hockey rink since the original "Miracle on Ice," and they were here in February, and it was an amazing moment, just an incredible—the 2026 men's Olympic hockey team. We celebrated together, and it was something special. It was a really—an amazing period of time. And the women's team and the men's team, it was just incredible.
And in that overtime thriller, Team U.S.A. beat Canada two to one, thanks to many memorable performances and clutch plays, including the Golden Goal. They scored it. They called it the "Golden"—it sounds like me naming it. I call it the "Golden Age of America." [Laughter] The golden age of America. Now we have the Golden Goal. But that's okay.
And that was done by Jack Hughes, as you know. Great guy.
And a record 41 saves by goalie Connor Hellebuyck, and he was the MVP. Everybody would agree to that. He was unbelievable. He was something.
And of course, we can't forget and never would—and nobody would have the courage to forget, either, because they are amazing—the history-making women's hockey team. This team left all—everything right on the ice, and they beat Canada and clinched the Olympic gold.
With us today are two of the key contributors to that winning effort: Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne. And I want to thank you, Abbey and Joy, for an incredible—really a memorable period of time. It was just an amazing time for our country. Where are you, Abbey and Joy? Where are you? Where are you? Great going. Come here.
Proud of you. That was really something.
But never before in history have both of our men's and women's hockey teams won gold in a single season. This is truly the—and I say it: It's just a period of time our country has never done better than it's doing right now in so many different ways.
Even in terms of investment of—$19.2 trillion is pouring into our country, making them richer. It's making everybody in this room richer—including my man. But it's been a great—it's been a great period of time.
And I will say this: The whole world is know—and they know it, and they say it. We're—we have—right now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, and a big factor is right standing behind me. What a future they have, every one of them. Thank you very much. Such an honor.
So, adding to this historic success, our Paralympians brought home their fifth straight gold medal in sled hockey and—extended one of the greatest dynasties in all of international sports, and it's amazing what you've done. Nobody's ever done anything like it. Where are you? Let me just see.
Sled hockey player Kevin McKee. Part of it.
The President. Congratulations, huh?
And congratulations to Brett Bolton, David Eustace, Jack Wallace, Kayden Beasley, Kevin McKee, Landon Uthke, Liam Cunningham, Malik Jones, Declan Farmer, and Jen Lee. You are really an inspiration, and thank you very much. It's an amazing, amazing achievement that we'll never forget. And it was a record. There's something nice about record performances. It was a record.
It's one of the highest pleasures of the Presidency to be able to support our Nation's best athletes—and that's what they are—and celebrate the champions of Team U.S.A.
Under the Trump administration, we're doing everything we can to protect the cherished sporting traditions that have long been part of our nation from the beginning—right from the beginning.
And already we've done a lot to help save women's sports, and we're also saving college sports. We're in the process of working very hard. We had a bad judge's decision, and a judge that knew nothing about sports declared sports unconstitutional. Can you believe it? And we had to come and put something together, and we had the help of so many great people. They all came together.
And we have a bill right now that we're trying to get passed. And if it does, we'll be bringing sports back, and you'll all be protected, and your sports will be protected and, frankly, women will be protected, because with what happened, that was the worst thing that happened to women's sports. You understand that.
And we're working very hard with a lot of great people. Nick Saban, as an example, was so instrumental, and Andy [Randy; White House correction] Levine. He's the president of the New York Yankees. And just so man—they all came together: the Big 10, the SEC. And what a mess it was. A court case that was a disaster.
And why they didn't appeal that case, I have no idea. I won't ask about that. But they didn't appeal it. Some genius said, "Let's not appeal it." And that was a perfect case to win on appeal. But the people that were running things did not appeal it. So, so foolish.
But we have it going, and we're very close to a deal that will be terrific, I think, and really save college sports and save colleges, if you want to know the truth—the money that was being spent because of this ridiculous decision that was made.
But the collegiate athletic system is the engine of American Olympic dominance. And you know, you produce the great Olympians—they—really can compete in college and all sports, every sport—producing 88 Team U.S.A. athletes for the 2026 Winter Games alone.
And to that end, I am urging the House and the Senate to come together—bipartisan, if possible, and it looks like that's what they have done—together and send the bill to my desk. I will sign it immediately. Done by some of the greatest people in sports.
And I think we have no choice. We have to get that done, right? We have to get that done. And if we don't, we're very foolish. Nobody knows what's going to happen. We're in never-never land, and we're not going to let that be happening. We're just not going to let it happen to these great people and others. But we're not going to let that happen.
I know many of the Olympians here today are already training for the next Winter Games, and 8 years from now—who is expecting and hoping to be in the Olympic—the next Olympics? Because—well, we're going to run that good like we did the World Cup. Good. Good. That's great. That's great.
Well, we're going to do a real job. You know, we had the greatest, most successful—the FIFA, the World Cup was the most—and I want to just pay a special thanks to Andrew. You did a fantastic job. Andrew Giuliani. Great job. It was like a flawless thing. It was four times more successful than any—monetarily and every other way. I think other ways even more than that.
But it was——
White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup Executive Director Andrew Giuliani. [Inaudible]
The President. Well, thank you. But we're going to do it again now for them. We have to do it again for them. So we're going to make this one of the best, maybe the best.
But that was the most successful World Cup they've ever had by far. They actually say by four times greater. I said, "Let's do it again in 4 years." But other countries had problems with that, right? [Laughter]
But in 8 years from now, some of you may even have a chance to compete on American soil on the 2034 Winter Olympics, where it's going to be in Salt Lake City. And of course—and that will be great. And of course, we're all looking forward to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. So we've got a lot of action. We have a lot of action going.
So it's really going to be something, and it's going to be well run. It's been well run, just like FIFA. Not a—we didn't have a problem. It was so smooth, all of those games. It was sort of like, they said, having a Super Bowl every day and, actually, in some cases, having about four Super Bowls a day. But it worked out so flawlessly. We're very proud of it.
And I want to just once again thank everybody representing our Nation so incredibly and setting all of those records, because you really—many of you set records. Setting a record is a big deal, all those years. And you showed the entire world that the Americans really—they know how to fight, fight, fight and win, win, win. And you can do that better than anybody. And I'm going to be watching you again very soon.
And now let's have two of the Team U.S.A.'s flag bearers, the great flag bearers, of this past Winter Olympics, come forward for a special gift presentation. One of the most decorated Paralympians in U.S. history, a phenomenal athlete, Laurie Stephens, along with U.S. Army sergeant and bobsled team member, a great talent, Frank Del Duca.
Do you know Frank Del Duca—[laughter]. Where's Frank Del Duca? Is that Frank? Come here, Frank. Strong, strong—very strong hands.
Great job.
Would you like to say something? Please.
Bobsledder Frank Del Duca. Mr. President, my name is Frank Del Duca, and I'm joined here with my teammate, six-time Paralympian Laurie Stephens.
We had the unique privilege of serving as Team U.S.A.'s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina.
Thank you for welcoming us to the White House. It's an honor to be here. Thank you for your support of America's Olympic and Paralympic athletes and for helping to celebrate the movement that unites and inspires so many across our country.
On behalf of Team U.S.A., we would like to gift you these keepsakes. We hope you'll wear them proudly as you continue to cheer on Team U.S.A.
The President. Thank you. I will be. Thank you very much.
[At this point, the President was presented with a Team U.S.A. jacket and shoes.] Thank you very much.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. I want to thank everybody, and we're going to do something a little special. If you can get down, we're going to—we have some really beautiful coins. I love coins. I love—[laughter]—I love—always loved coins, but we have the best of them.
And we're going to give everybody here a very special coin, and if you can, we'll get down, and I'll show you the Oval Office.
Would you like to see the Oval Office?
Participants. Yes!
The President. I don't do that for too many other teams. We have a lot of teams coming, and most of them, I just want to get out of there. Some of them I like; some of them I don't like. [Laughter] Some of them I love, and some of them I don't like so much. [Laughter]
But they all come here. We just had the Dodgers; they were fantastic. The Super Bowl winner—we have everybody. And this is one of the great honors. And really, you are tremendous athletes.
I mean, to do it six times. How do you do it six times? [Laughter] That's a lot of heart. That's a lot of heart.
So we're going to come down to the Oval Office together. We're going to take one picture here, and then we're going to present you all with a very special—really, something that you're going to like—a coin but a very special coin from the White House. Okay?
Thank you very much.
Does anybody not want to go to the Oval Office? Huh? [Laughter] Great job. Great job.
Let's go. We'll do this. Come on.
[The President posed with athletes for a group photograph.]
I'll see you down at the Oval. Okay? We're going to see you down at the Oval.
[As he moved to exit the East Room, the President addressed reporters as follows.] You're doing good, Jennifer [Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News]?
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. Yes. Anything new on the Strait of Hormuz?
The President. Moving along good.
NOTE: The President spoke at 7:06 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Claudia A. Wilken, judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; and Nick Saban, ESPN broadcaster and former University of Alabama football head coach. The transcript was released by the Office of Communications on August 7.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes, reception; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, White House.
Locations: Washington, DC.
Names: Beach, Brandon; Beasley, Kayden; Bolton, Brett; Cunningham, Liam; Curran, Connor; Del Duca, Frank; Dunne, Joy; Eustace, David; Farmer, Declan; Giuliani, Andrew; Hellebuyck, Connor; Hirshland, Sarah; Hollis, Paul; Hughes, Jack; Jones, Malik; Kuhn, Kaila; Lee, Jen; Lemley, Elizabeth; Levine, Randy; Lillis, Christopher; McKee, Kevin; Murphy, Abbey; O'Shea, Danny; Saban, Nick; Stephens, Laurie; Stolz, Jordan; Uthke, Landon; Wallace, Jack; Wilken, Claudia A.
Subjects: College athletics, improvement efforts; Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup; Italy, 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milano; Name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation programs; Olympic and Paralympic Games; U.S. Mint;
U.S. Treasurer.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600525.