ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As excitement has built and focus has sharpened in preparation for the Winter Olympics, biathlete and Minnesota native Luci Anderson has been jarred at times by thoughts of home.
One day last week, while Anderson watched from Italy, her family members marched among thousands of people through downtown Minneapolis in protest of the immigration crackdown that has wracked the city.
Anderson said she struggles to keep sports in perspective.
“It’s kind of hard being over here feeling like I’m doing this thing that does not matter," Anderson, 25, said in a video interview with The Associated Press. "It matters, but in the grand scheme of things it’s like, ‘Wow, my people back home are fighting for people’s rights, and I’m over here just skiing.’ It’s kind of an odd contrast to be trying to chase my dreams but also wanting to support the people that are at home fighting for what’s right.”
The U.S. Olympic contingent in Italy counts 26 athletes who are native to Minnesota, trailing only Colorado (32) for the most by state. About a dozen others either call Minnesota home now or compete and train there in sports like curling or hockey.
Many of them are coming to the Winter Games with mixed feelings: excited about competing in the Olympics but anxious about the situation in their home state.
Alpine ski star Lindsey Vonn, who grew up in Minnesota, said during a news conference Tuesday that her heart is heavy for everyone back home.
“I think the best thing I can do is to do exactly what I said, stand tall and have hope and show the world what America is, who we are as people, because we are more than what’s happening right now,” she said. “The best thing I can do is represent us well. And it is a privilege to be here. I don’t take that lightly. I always do my best to make our country proud, and I hope I can do that in these Games.”
President Donald Trump has promised mass deportations of undocumented migrants, sending federal law enforcement officials into cities like Minneapolis as part of the push. It was one of his signature promises for his second term in office. But last month, two fatal shootings by federal officials of U.S. citizens sparked a broad backlash against the crackdown -- including in Minnesota itself.
Lee Stecklein, one of five natives of the state on the women’s hockey team, said she hopes to “represent Minnesota well” at the Games.
“The world is watching. Not just here. They’ll be watching us at the Olympics, and it’s a good time to shine a light on some of the things going on here," she said.
Stecklein spoke after a recent practice in St. Paul with the Minnesota Frost, the Professional Women's Hockey League team that counts three of the other four Minnesotans on the U.S. Olympic squad: Taylor Heise, Kelly Pannek and Grace Zumwinkle.
The Frost played a home game the day after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and emotions in the arena were high.
“Representing our country, representing our state, we get to do it at a sporting event, but there’s so many people that do it on a daily basis, that do it with grace and humility and selflessness and with love and care for their neighbor,” Pannek said.
Jessie Diggins, the top-ranked cross-country skier in the world, grew up in the Twin Cities metro area. She recently posted on social media how difficult she has found being so far away during the unrest and how determined she will be to honor the people in her state.
“I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination,” Diggins said.
Her cross country teammate, Zak Ketterson, echoed that pride in calling the Twin Cities his home.
“Despite the recent turmoil and sad events in the city, I know it doesn’t reflect the kindness and love of the people who live here,” Ketterson said on Instagram.
Biathlete Margie Freed, who’s also from Minneapolis, told AP in a video interview from Italy that she was inspired by people demonstrating against the immigration crackdown at home.
“Seeing all of the people come together, whether it’s like a little vigil or it’s driving someone where they need to go, it’s really heartwarming and it shows that there’s a lot of love," Freed said.
Bellisle reported from Seattle.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Margie Freed of the U.S. in action during the women's 7.5km sprint competition, at the World Cup of Biathlon in Oberhof, Germany, Jan. 8, 2026. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP, File)
FILE - Lucinda Anderson, of the United States, competes in the women's 7.5 km sprint competition at the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen, Austria, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
The brutally frigid weather that has gripped most of America for the past 11 days is not unprecedented. It just feels that way.
The first quarter of the 21st century was unusually warm by historical standards – mostly due to human-induced climate change – and so a prolonged cold spell this winter is unfamiliar to many people, especially younger Americans.
Because bone-shattering cold occurs less frequently, Americans are experiencing it more intensely now than they did in the past, several experts in weather and behavior said. But the longer the current icy blast lasts – sub-freezing temperatures are forecast to stick around in many places — the easier it should become to tolerate.
“We adapt, we get used to things. This is why your first bite of dessert is much more satisfying than your 20th bite,” Hannah Perfecto, who studies consumer behavior at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote in an email. “The same is true for unpleasant experiences: Day 1 of a cold snap is much more a shock to the system than Day 20 is.”
Charlie Steele, a 78-year-old retired federal worker in Saugerties, New York, considers himself a lover of cold weather. In the recent past, he has gone outside in winter wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and has even walked barefoot in the snow. But this January's deep-freeze is “much, much colder than anything I can remember," he said.
Steele's sense of change is backed up data.
There have been four fewer days of subfreezing temperatures in the U.S. per year, on average, between 2001 and 2025 than there were in the previous 25 years, according to data from Climate Central. The data from more than 240 weather stations also found that spells of subfreezing temperatures have become less widespread geographically and haven’t lasted as long — until this year.
In Albany, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Steele, the change has been more pronounced than the national average, with 11 fewer subfreezing days in the last 25 years than the previous quarter century.
“You're out of practice,” Steele said. “You're kind of lulled into complacency.”
Climate change has shifted what people are used to, said several climate scientists, including Daniel Swain of the University of California's Water Resources Institute.
“It’s quite possible that for anybody under the age of 30, in some spots this may well be the coldest week of their life,” Swain said.
Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, said, “humans get used to all kinds of things -- city noise, stifling heat, lies from politicians, and winter cold. So when a ‘normal’ cold spell does come along, we feel it more acutely.”
People forget how extreme cold feels after just two to eight years of milder winters, according to a 2019 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Americans have gone through a much longer stretch than that.
Over the past 30 years, the average daily low in the continental U.S. has dropped below 10 degrees (minus 12 degrees Celsius) 40 times, according to meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But in the preceding 30 years, that chilly threshold was reached 124 times.
“People have forgotten just how cold it was in the 20th century,” Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler said.
Their wake-up call came late last month, when the country's average daily low dipped below 10 degrees three times in one week.
Regardless of how it feels, extremely cold weather presents dangers. People and vehicles slip on ice, power can go down, leaving people freezing in homes, and storms limit visibility, making commuting to work or even doing basic errands, potentially perilous. More than 110 deaths have been connected to the winter storms and freezing temperatures since January.
As this winter's frigid days stretch on, people adapt. University of San Diego psychiatrist Thomas Rutledge said people shake off what he calls their “weather rustiness.”
Rutledge explained what he meant via email, recalling the period decades ago when he lived in Alaska. “I assumed that everyone was a good driver in winter conditions. How couldn’t they be with so much practice?" he wrote. "But what I annually observed was that there was always a large spike in car accidents in Alaska after (the) first big snowfall hit. Rather than persistent skills, it seemed that the 4-6 months of spring and summer was enough for peoples’ winter driving skills to rust enough to cause accidents.”
That's Alaska. This cold snap hit southern cities such as Dallas and Miami, where it's not just the people unaccustomed to the cold. Utilities and other basic infrastructure are also ill-equipped to handle the extreme weather, said Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
While this ongoing cold snap may feel unusually long to many Americans, it isn't, according to data from 400 weather stations across the continental U.S. with at least a century of record-keeping, as tracked by the Southeast Regional Climate Center.
Only 33 of these weather stations have recorded enough subzero temperatures (minus 18 degrees Celsius) since the start of 2026 to be in the top 10% of the coldest first 32 days of any year over the past century.
When Steele moved to the Hudson Valley as a toddler in 1949, the average daily low temperature over the previous 10 winters was 14.6 degrees (minus 9.7 degrees Celsius). In the past 10 years, the average daily low was 20.8 degrees (minus 6.2 degrees Celsius).
As a younger man, Steele used to hunt in winter and sit for hours on cold rocks.
“I could never do that now,” he said. “I’m rusty. I’m out of practice.”
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FILE - A pedestrian crosses the street near Radio City Music Hall during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)
FILE - Vehicles travel eastbound on Interstate 20 near a sign advising motorists of icy conditions during a winter storm Jan. 24, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - A person carries grocery bags up a residential street during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)
FILE - Rafael Tavares digs his car, which was encased about 20 inches of snow, during a winter storm Jan. 26, 2026, in Lawrence, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - Pedestrians walk down Fifth Avenue during a winter storm Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)
FILE - Carrie Hampton tries to navigate a snowy intersection without spilling her coffee in New York, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
