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FBI Director Kash Patel has responded to critics questioning his presence in the U.S. men’s hockey team’s locker room during their gold medal victory celebration over Canada at the Winter Olympics.
Captured on video in Milan, Italy, Patel was seen joining Team USA’s celebration on the final day of the Winter Games. The footage shows him enjoying a beer and enthusiastically pounding a table, while forward Matthew Tkachuk placed a gold medal around his neck. The team then broke into a rendition of “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” by Toby Keith.
Addressing the criticism, Patel took to social media platform X, stating, “To the concerned media – yes, I am proud of America and was truly honored to be invited by my friends, the newly crowned Gold Medal winners, to celebrate such a historic moment with them. Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth.”
The U.S. men’s team secured a dramatic 2-1 victory over Canada, with forward Jack Hughes scoring the decisive sudden-death goal. This win marks the first gold medal for the U.S. men’s hockey team since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union and subsequent win against Finland in Lake Placid, New York.
In a parallel achievement, the U.S. women’s hockey team also triumphed over Canada with a 2-1 overtime win earlier in the week, earning their third gold medal since women’s hockey became part of the Winter Olympics in 1998.
Patel, a hockey fan who plays the sport recreationally, also met Saturday with the Milan Joint Operations Center, an interagency endeavor with international partners to support the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. He wrote on X that the operation is “focused on protecting the US athletes, 250,000 US citizens who traveled to Milan for the games, as well as the private sector companies we share information with every day.”
“Nearly 100 US Government personnel have been surged to support the Olympics since the start of 2026 – with lessons we’ll take into the FIFA World Cup later this summer,” he added.
Patel’s trip to Italy comes as the FBI, in conjunction with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, continues to search for Nancy Guthrie. The 84-year-old mother of longtime NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie has been missing from her home outside Tuscon, Ariz., for over three weeks, with authorities believing she was taken against her will.
The FBI is also leading the investigation into the fatal shooting of an armed man by law enforcement personnel at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., early Sunday morning. Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said the individual, who the FBI later identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, was killed after he entered the “secure perimeter” at the resort.
The president was not at Mar-a-Lago but often spends weekends there during the winter. Later Sunday, the Palm County Sheriff’s Office released a photo of the weapon and gas can that law enforcement found on Martin after he was killed.