As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in China commence today, Americans can take pride once again in our nation’s finest athletes. But we also shouldn’t overlook the Games’ warts this time – and the resulting challenges to all who participate.

In a more perfect world, neither the cultural pomp nor monetary windfall of the globe’s most celebrated sporting festival would benefit China given its appalling human rights record and other outrageous behavior.

But with the International Olympic Committee not budging from Beijing, with accompanying presenting partners soldiering on with plans, and with Team USA not boycotting, these Olympics are reminiscent of Berlin 1936.

So, what are Americans to do – watch, or not?

It’s imperative to consider the more than 200 U.S. athletes who are representing us – and they need our moral support more than ever. Team USA is experiencing the 21st-century equivalent of what American athletes like Jesse Owens endured at the 1936 event Adolf Hitler brooded over.

In recent days, our Olympians have deplaned in Beijing greeted by hazmat-clad workers. Once in the Olympic village, our delegation was met with a dystopian setting so void of personal liberty that American athletes are using “burner” cellphones to avoid Chinese surveillance. They’re eating within the Orwellian confines of individual plexiglass cubicles.

Without family, friends or fans, not only are Americans competing on snow and ice, they’re in a fake-plastic bubble. And it isolates them from the authenticity and support of the outside world during the most pressure-packed time of their young lives.

If Red Gerard of Silverthorne wins another snowboard medal this weekend, it won’t be the party at the bottom of the hill that greeted him four years ago in South Korea – his large, loud and loving family celebrating amid American fans.

However the contests go, Red, his fellow Coloradan and teammate Chris Corning and other U.S. Olympians will only have their coaches, team personnel and one another to rally around.

Corning – one of a deep crew of Coloradans competing in Beijing – is a proud rider who doesn’t hide his love of country. In South Korea, he wore a specially airbrushed helmet replete with red, white and blue iconography. Like so many American Olympians, he’s dedicated his life to shining for his beloved country on the world’s grandest stage.

Nearly a century ago, because Black and Jewish Americans excelled in front of Hitler, they rewrote in real time the history of those 1936 Olympics. Eighty-five years later, though American athletes and fans are separated by half a world, we can similarly have our say in the story of Beijing 2022.

Yes, China has done everything to control the narrative, including enticing American-born-raised-and-trained free skier Eileen Gu – the best in the world – to represent her mother’s homeland rather than her and her father’s native nation.

In the end, we know where she’s from, and we know the American people and facilities – like those here in Colorado – through which she harnessed her passion and perfected her craft.

CCTV can dub her “the Snow Princess.” We have a snow platoon. And they deserve our vocal support whether it be screaming at your TV, posting support to social media or sharing their uniquely American stories with friends so fervently the world – and China – have no choice but to listen to us cheer.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board