From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the daily on Sunday.

Athletes at the Olympics compete for the gold, but the games are about more than just winning.

They're about people pushing themselves to their physical limits to achieve what seems impossible.

They're about overcoming adversity and national pride. And to some degree, they're

always a little bit about geopolitics. But perhaps never before in recent memory has that last

category taken the spotlight as much as it is at this year's games, as Americans face off

against athletes from countries who have found themselves

in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

Today, I talk with my colleagues, Motoko Rich, Shawna Richer, and Juliet McCurr about the heated

rivalries at this year's games and the biggest dramas so far.

It's Sunday, February 15th.

Motoko Rich, welcome.

Thanks so much for having me.

So going into these Olympics, I have been wondering just how awkward it was going to be

for American athletes to compete against countries that our president has basically been

openly sparring with over the past year. So we're talking about Canada, Denmark, a ton of our

European allies. You, Motoko, you've been a foreign correspondent on multiple continents. You are currently

our Rome Bureau chief. So you are well positioned to have been focusing on the international

politics that are the background noise of these games. What is the vibe there? Well,

certainly going into the games, the political landscape was that Trump had already denigrated Europe multiple

times, had been talking about how he was tired of some of the responsibilities of the alliances,

was engaging in trade wars, was even threatening at one point to attack Greenland militarily.

...