{"id":476024,"date":"2026-02-15T07:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476024\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T07:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:11:08","slug":"fans-who-raised-greenlands-flag-at-us-olympic-hockey-game-say-it-was-a-pro-europe-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476024\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans who raised Greenland’s flag at US Olympic hockey game say it was a pro-Europe gesture"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in men\u2019s hockey<\/a> at the Winter Olympics Saturday in Milan say they did so as a gesture of European support for the island and for Denmark. <\/p>\n

Vita Kalni\u0146a and her husband, Alexander Kalni\u0146\u0161 \u2014 fans of the Latvian hockey team who live in Germany \u2014 held up a large red and white Greenland flag<\/a> 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor us as Europeans it was important to show up (with) this symbol as a symbol of a European unity that we support Greenland,\u201d Kalni\u0146\u0161 told The Associated Press. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric in recent weeks about taking control of Greenland<\/a> has stirred up national pride in Denmark, which oversees the semiautonomous island, as well as support from across the European continent. <\/p>\n

Yet inside the hockey area on Saturday, Kalni\u0146a and Kalni\u0146\u0161 say they were told by venue staff that they could not continue to hold up the flag, even as American flags were waved throughout the stands. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe said it was due to safety reasons, because there could be American aggressive people,\u201d Kalni\u0146\u0161 told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Kalni\u0146a and Kalni\u0146\u0161 complied because they wanted to watch the game. After all, they said, they\u2019d made their point because anyone inside the arena \u2014 and those watching on TV \u2014 had already seen the flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the message was sent,\u201d Kalni\u0146\u0161 said.<\/p>\n

The Greenland flag\u2019s status at the Games is unclear because Greenland doesn\u2019t participate with its own team. Greenlandic athletes, such as biathlete siblings Ukaleq and Sondre Slettemark<\/a>, compete as part of Denmark\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

A guide on the official Olympic website for the opening ceremony specified that fans can only bring \u201cflags of countries and territories participating in the Games.\u201d <\/p>\n

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark.<\/p>\n

Kalni\u0146a and Kalni\u0146\u0161 said they want Greenlanders to know that Europe supports the Arctic island whether it stays a part of Denmark or ultimately chooses full independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not OK that Trump and America are this aggressive and try to incorporate the island into their country,\u201d Kalni\u0146\u0161 said<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Danish athletes playing in the so-called \u201cGreenland Derby\u201d<\/a> said politics never made it to the ice.<\/p>\n

As for the strained relationship between the U.S. and Denmark, \u201cwe didn\u2019t even mention it\u201d within the team, captain Jesper Jensen Aabo said. \u201cWe just wanted to win a hockey game<\/a> against a world-class team. We didn\u2019t need extra fire to fire us up. We were ready for the game even though there\u2019s stuff going around in the real world, so that\u2019s nothing that affected us at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The captain said the players did not notice the Greenland flag in the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see it, but that was nice,\u201d Jensen Aabo said. \u201cSo hopefully they supported us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other American and Danish fans who watched their teams face off said they believe sports transcends politics amid recent tensions between their governments over Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whatever sport it is \u2014 it could be tennis, it could be bobsledding, it can be ice hockey, it could be football \u2014 it has nothing to do with politics,\u201d Danish fan Dennis Petersen, his face covered in red and white paint to symbolize the kingdom\u2019s flag, told the AP ahead of the game. \u201cThey are athletes, not politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

American fan Rem de Rohan, sporting a stars and stripes jacket, agreed that politics should be left at the stadium gate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is the time for people to kind of put that down and compete country versus country and enjoy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love rooting on every country that\u2019s been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kostya Manenkov, James Ellingworth and Stephen Whyno in Milan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[167256,13541,193210,49,48,8267,193213,1376,3456,2841,193211,10853,5239,193212,16061,176726,82,188293,883],"class_list":{"0":"post-476024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","9":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","10":"tag-alexander-kalnins","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-denmark","14":"tag-dennis-petersen","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-germany-olympic-team","19":"tag-greenland","20":"tag-hockey","21":"tag-jesper-jensen-aabo","22":"tag-olympic-games","23":"tag-send-to-apple-news","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-winter-olympic-games","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}