Canadian-born pop singer Tate McRae appeared in an NBC ad for the Milan Cortina Olympics, in which she expressed support for Team USA. McRae was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 2003, and attended high school in the country. However, she has made her music career in the U.S.

In the ad, McRae is seen speaking to an owl, asking how to get to Milan. She expresses excitement over watching American athletes, including Lindsey Vonn, and closed it out by hyping up America’s Game – the Super Bowl. 

“I’m trying to get to Milan for an amazing opening ceremony, and meet Team USA. Gonna spend the week with some of America’s best, skating for gold, and Lindsey Vonn’s epic comeback. And back to the states for the big game, Super Bowl LX,” she said in the commercial.

McRae’s support for the U.S. in the ad prompted criticisms from Canadians across social media. 

One user referenced President Donald Trump’s previous suggestion that Canada become America’s 51st state. 

“Every year I feel more valid in my dislike of her. Girl why are you advertising for the USA team after that country threatened to annex your actual home country of Canada? Traitor s—,” the user wrote. 

One user wrote, “Not the Canadian born and raised girl, promoting Team USA and wearing all red, given the state of the USA and everything Trump has said about Canada… I guess a paycheque is a paycheque? This is so embarrassing.” 

Another user wrote, “Tate McRae, who is from Calgary Alberta, is doing Olympic promos for Team USA… more like ‘Trait McRator’ AMIRITE!”

Some Americans and Canadians have stood up for the ascendant pop star in the face of the backlash, 

“Quote tweets are full of woke Canadians attacking her as a traitor for promoting Team USA. Tate McRae is the model immigrant. This is what assimilation looks like. She’s part of our melting pot. Take your anti-American xenophobia elsewhere,” one user wrote on a collage of the criticisms against McRae. 

Another user wrote, “Selling out for usa is the most albertan thing she could do to be fair.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada are historically higher than at the previous Winter Olympics amid Trump’s proposition to annex the country and the imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods coming into the U.S. last year. 

This year’s Winter Games could see fans of the two countries booing each other’s national anthems, as well as potential fights in hockey matches, as was seen during the NHL’s 4 Nations Face Off last January. 

US OLYMPIAN SPEAKS OUT AFTER TEAM CANADA WITHDRAWAL PREVENTS HER FROM QUALIFYING FOR MILAN-CORTINA

Multiple athletes competing for the upcoming U.S. women’s ice hockey Olympic team have said they are willing to engage in physical combat with Canadian players if it comes to it. 

U.S. women’s hockey star Caroline Harvey said she is prepared to fight and even hear Canadians boo “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Games. 

“It’s expected, especially playing Canada,” Harvey told Fox News Digital of potential anthem booing at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media summit in October. “They don’t like us very much. So, it’s more motivating than anything and, personally, it fuels the fire and makes us want to, you know, beat them more than ever.

“I don’t like them either. They’re a respectable competitor. They’re so good and always give us such a hard game. It’s so back-and-forth. But when we get in the heat of the moment, we just always fight and don’t like them. … It does get personal at times.”

Veteran teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield, the mother of a toddler and self-described “lover, not a fighter,” told Fox News Digital in October she would fight if the situation demands it. 

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“If I have to, I have to,” she said. “And I wouldn’t say I’m not a fighter in the sense that I’ve fought for many things in life. But I would just say in general. Fighting is not a strength of my game. But if I’m out there, and I have to, you know, help my teammates out, I will. But you won’t find me starting the fight, I can tell you that.”

Meanwhile, in the skeleton competition, many Americans are outraged over the absence of five-time Olympian Katie Uhlaender in Milan Cortina, after Team Canada was found to have manipulated an Olympic qualifier last month that prevented Uhlaender from being able to earn enough points to make this year’s Winter Games. 

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MILAN — Amber Glenn achieved a lifelong goal, sealing her Olympic bid by winning her third consecutive U.S. championship last month. Her first celebration came with her opponents.

“We all deserve it,” Glenn said with her arms wrapped around national silver medalist Alysa Liu and bronze medalist Isabeau Levito.

The spirit of collaboration has brought U.S. figure skating into a new golden age. The 16-athlete team the United States sent to Milan may be the country’s strongest Olympic team in decades. With three reigning world champions and three current Grand Prix final champions, the United States is poised for one of its best Olympic Games ever in figure skating.

The U.S. record for most medals in figure skating at a single Olympics is five from 1956, when the U.S. swept the podium for the men’s singles competition. The country has never won three figure skating gold medals in one Games.

“We’re all in this together,” said Justin Dillon, U.S. Figure Skating senior director of athlete high performance. “We’re all working towards those goals. … I very much appreciate our athletes really wanting to outdo themselves, outdo each other but with respect and at the highest level possible.”

The United States is almost assured a repeat gold in the men’s singles event with Ilia Malinin, whose unmatched quad axel has him on a two-and-a-half-year winning streak. Ice dancers Evan Bates and Madison Chock are three-time defending world champions who return to their fourth — and likely final — Olympics together poised to earn the only individual medal that has eluded them.

And the women’s team has three strong contenders to end a 20-year Olympic medal drought. Liu is the reigning world champion and Grand Prix Final champion. Levito took silver at the world championships in 2024. Glenn outpaced both to win another U.S. championship.

Making her Olympic debut, the 26-year-old said she came through the sport between two generations of skaters. Glenn saw how the pressure of comparison impacted her older peers and wanted to ensure the culture among female skaters could be healthy for athletes coming after her. How she did it was by talking through her nerves with the athletes who knew exactly what she was feeling.

“To be able to have a good, healthy teammate-like relationship with those people, I think, has benefited all of us tremendously,” Glenn said. “Because we bring each other up rather than trying to just step on each other to get higher up.”

With three individual gold medals in sight, the United States is also favored to win team gold for the second consecutive Games. The team competition begins Friday with the rhythm dance and women’s and pairs short programs.

The opportunity for a second team gold medal comes after the 2022 Olympic title came with controversy. The United States finished second, but was awarded the gold after Russian skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified because of a positive drug test from a sample submitted two months before the Games. The medal ceremony was canceled. With the investigation hanging over the then-15-year-old competing in the premier event of the Winter Olympics, Valieva struggled during the individual competition and broke down in tears in the kiss-and-cry.

The doping scandal, combined with the pandemic, made it feel like “a dark cloud was over [the sport],” 2018 Olympian Adam Rippon said.

“If I was a young kid, I don’t know if that would motivate me or get me on my hands and knees to beg my mom to take group classes. All of those women ended up in tears,” Rippon said. “I think that this Olympics is going to be so different.

“I think that this Olympics, there’s going to be so many people who become more interested in skating and want to follow it year round. And also a lot of young kids who are like, you know what? I want to be just like Ilia. I want to be just like Amber Glenn.”

U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin takes part in a training session at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Wednesday. Malinin is the favorite for gold in the men’s competition.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Interest in figure skating is already up. The women’s and pairs free skate competitions at the U.S. championships were NBC’s most-watched U.S. figure skating telecast since 2019, averaging 2.5 million viewers. The audience for the men’s free skate — where Malinin won his fourth consecutive national title — and ice dance jumped 51% from the corresponding pre-2022 Winter Games telecast to 2.2 million viewers.

Still, the sport is far behind its heyday when figure skating was the second-most watched sport in the United States after the NFL.

The 1994 women’s technical program, which featured Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding a month after Kerrigan was struck on the knee with a baton, drew the third-highest TV rating for any sporting event at the time. Only Super Bowls XVI and XVII were rated higher.

The sport was built on rivalries. Skating was a “dog eat dog” sport, said Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion who was pitted against Canadian Brian Orser in “The Battle of the Brians.” Opponents were friendly, but certainly not friends, Boitano said.

This golden age of skating is built equally on camaraderie and competition. The sight of Liu and Levito standing behind the boards, jumping and cheering for Glenn when she finished her free skate to win her third U.S. championship went almost as viral as Glenn’s winning performance.

“To see this team supporting each other like they have, I feel like that’s the thing that … can make people love them,” Boitano said. “They are so lovable, and they are so inspiring, and it’s so refreshing, especially in this day and age.”

Figure skaters (from left) Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito and Bradie Tennell pose with their medals at the U.S. figure skating championships on Jan. 9.

(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

Younger skaters often ask the legends what the sport was like during the previous generation. Boitano recalls professional competitions, sold-out cross-country tours and TV shows. But the magic was the skaters on the ice, he said. The diverse cast of characters assembled over multiple Olympic cycles included Scott Hamilton, Boitano, Katarina Witt, Debi Thomas, Kristi Yamaguchi, Philippe Candeloro and Surya Bonaly.

Boitano is thrilled to pass the torch to the current generation knowing even the stars of his time couldn’t match this group’s success in one key area: The United States had never previously won three world championships in a single year.

“I honestly think if this crew can’t bring back the popularity of figure skating,” Boitano said, “I don’t think it can be done.”

Ryan Kennedy, a Michigan resident and self-described Detroit Lions fan, is taking legal action following a December altercation with Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf at Ford Field.

Kennedy and his legal team held a news conference in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on Dec. 26. On Tuesday, attorneys representing Kennedy announced that a lawsuit had been filed in Wayne County Court. The lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages stemming from the Dec. 21 incident and names DK Metcalf, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ford Field, the Lions’ longtime home stadium.

Former NFL player Chad Johnson, Ford Field management and multiple media platforms were also listed in the lawsuit, alleging that they played a role in making “defamatory and life-altering statements” against Kennedy in the aftermath of the incident.

The filing outlines nine counts, including negligence against Ford Field and multiple defamation claims against Metcalf, Johnson and former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe’s Shay Shay Media.

During the first half of the Lions–Steelers game on Dec. 21, Metcalf appeared to take a swing at Kennedy, who was seated in the Ford Field stands. The NFL later disciplined Metcalf with a two-game suspension to close the regular season.

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On an episode of Shay Shay Media’s “Nightcap” podcast released the day after the incident, co-host Chad Johnson said Metcalf told him Kennedy directed a racial slur at the Steelers receiver and used a derogatory term toward Metcalf’s mother.

Kennedy denied using any slurs at a December press conference, a claim reiterated in the lawsuit.

“The statements were false and reckless,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff Kennedy did not call Defendant Metcalf the ‘N-word’; did not call Defendant Metcalf’s mother a ‘c—‘; and did not ever use any racial slurs or hate speech whatsoever … Defendant Metcalf provided false information to Defendant Johnson about what Plaintiff Kennedy allegedly said, thereby instigating and authorizing the publication of the defamatory and reckless statements, which were intended to harm Plaintiff Kennedy.”

Kennedy is also taking legal action against the Steelers for the team’s alleged liability in the incident, while Metcalf is accused of committing assault and battery in the lawsuit. The claims against Ford Field management are also based on liability.

“Defendant Ford Field Management, LLC breached its duty by failing to establish or enforce adequate barriers, protocols, or security measures to prevent players from reaching into the stands and making physical contact with patrons,” the lawsuit reads.

Fox News Digital contacted the Lions requesting comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Metcalf recorded 850 receiving yards in his first season with the Steelers.

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