MILAN — Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in men's hockey at the Winter Olympics Saturday in Milan say they did so as a gesture of European support for the island and for Denmark.
Vita Kalniņa and her husband Alexander Kalniņš, fans of the Latvian hockey team who live in Germany, held up a large Greenland flag during warmups and again when the Danish team scored the opening goal of the preliminary round game against the U.S., which ultimately beat Denmark 6-3.
“We are Europeans and I think as Europeans we must hold together,” Kalniņš told The Associated Press.
“The Greenlandic people decide what will happen with Greenland, but as it is now, Greenland is a part of the Danish kingdom and, as Greenland is a part of Denmark as in this case, we support both countries against the U.S.”
Other American and Danish fans who watched their teams face off Saturday said they believe sports transcends politics amid recent tensions between their governments over Greenland.
Trump's rhetoric in recent weeks about taking control of Greenland has stirred up national pride in Denmark, which oversees the semiautonomous island. That the teams just happen to face off at the Milan Cortina Olympics is no extra motivation to the players, but it is a chance for them to ride a wave of patriotism as significant underdogs.
“It doesn’t matter whatever sport it is — it could be tennis, it could be bobsledding, it can be ice hockey, it could be football — it has nothing to do with politics," Danish fan Dennis Petersen, his face covered in red and white paint to symbolize the kingdom's flag, told the AP ahead of the game. "They are athletes, not politicians.”
American fan Rem de Rohan, sporting a stars and stripes jacket, agreed that politics should be left at the stadium gate.
“I think this is the time for people to kind of put that down and compete country versus country and enjoy," he said. “We love rooting on every country that’s been here.”
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Kostya Manenkov, James Ellingworth and Stephen Whyno in Milan contributed to this report.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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