Debate has also resurfaced around participation rules. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, just days before the Winter Paralympics<\/a> were due to begin in Beijing. The country was banned from international sport for breaching the Olympic Truce. Russian athletes have since competed under \u201cIndividual Neutral Athlete\u201d status; at this year\u2019s Games, 13 Russians and seven Belarusians are participating under that designation and were excluded from the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n Ukaleq Slettemark and Sondre Slettemark, siblings from Greenland, are competing in the biathlon under the Danish flag. Greenland does not have its own recognised national Olympic committee, meaning its athletes must represent Denmark. While they cannot use the Greenland flag on their racing suits, they have incorporated a design inspired by it into their kit.<\/p>\n For J\u00f6rg Krieger, an associate professor at the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University, Denmark, the flags themselves at the Olympics are a political statement.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote a book<\/a> last year where I discussed national flags and national symbolism at the Olympics in general,\u201d he tells Big Issue. \u201cAnd I think the only way forward for sports organisations, particularly the IOC, is to say, \u2018Okay, well, either we drop that political symbolism altogether, because a political flag is a political symbol, and if you say sport and politics have nothing to do with each other, you cannot use the political symbol.\u2019 Or you have to admit that politics does play a role. But the way it is, as it is, is quite hypocritical.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s participation in Milano-Cortina has similarly prompted protest, with critics drawing parallels over the enforcement of the Olympic Truce during the ongoing conflict in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Russians are not allowed to be there, and Israel is allowed to be there,\u201d Krieger points out. \u201cSo there\u2019s definitely something happening here where there is favouritism towards certain countries. And of course, others will argue against that and say, well, there are different cases, but I think that it appears selective in certain instances.\u201d<\/p>\n A brief history of sport diplomacy<\/p>\n Sports diplomacy has often been used for \u2018soft power purposes\u2019 by powerful countries, including the US and the Soviets, Sisk explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most interesting cases come from 1948, when the Soviet football team did a series of four friendly matches in the UK. This was right after the war, and among those observing it was none other than George Orwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOrwell wrote a really interesting essay on the sporting spirit in which he blamed the fans, and particularly nationalistic fans, for what today we would call the psychological process of displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n The process involves fans \u2018displacing\u2019 their own national identities and interpreting the athletes wearing their national symbols.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201dOrwell tells us that the fans displace their own virtue onto the pitch such that they see in their own teams, their own kind of identities and national identities. But Orwell reminds us what is running or jumping or kicking a ball or slapping a puck actually have to do with the virtue of a country or the virtue of a people? It\u2019s a sporting event. It\u2019s supposed to be about play and physical recreation and fun.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s why Orwell called these kinds of events a war minus the shooting. Sometimes he called it mimic warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n Like war, there have been instances where tensions between competing teams have manifested in the arena. Krieger points to an infamous water polo game from 70 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cI would highlight the match between Hungary and the Soviet Union,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was just weeks after the Soviets had suppressed a revolution in Hungary against the communist superpower, and then those two nations met in the semifinal of the water polo. And water polo is quite a brutal sport. It\u2019s called the blood in the water because eyewitnesses said the water was red and bloody.\u201d<\/p>\n Hungary won 4-0, defeating the USSR in the semi-final match at the Melbourne Olympics.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still different to the US vs Denmark game this year\u201d, Krieger clarifies, \u201cbut it\u2019s an example of where you have a sort of superpower and a smaller nation involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Sisk points to another 1956 match as a comparison for the upcoming ice hockey game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe go back to the appearance of the Soviets in Olympic hockey in 1956, where they won the gold medal in ice hockey on their Olympic debut,\u201d he explains. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s the most interesting one in terms of a small, seemingly weaker country taking on a global powerhouse and winning.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then in 1980, there was the so-called \u2018Miracle on Ice\u2019 when a US team made up primarily of amateur players defeated the heavily favoured Soviet team. The Soviets had effectively professionalised amateur sport, so many of the Soviet players could be considered professional athletes. That one was an upset.\u201d<\/p>\n In December 2025, 45-years after their historic win, the team was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by president Donald Trump<\/a>, the highest honour given to American civilians by Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cHockey has been politicised,\u201d Sisk adds. \u201cSome of those athletes [from the team] we\u2019re seeing onstage with President Trump during the campaign, at political rallies and things. So some athletes choose to become involved in the political arena.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Sportswashing<\/p>\n The US is headed into what the White House has described as a \u201cdecade of sport\u201d. Later this year, the FIFA World Cup will be hosted across 16 cities, 11 of them in the United States.<\/p>\n In 2028, Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics. Salt Lake City, Utah, then follows with the winter games in 2034. The US is also expected to stage the Women\u2019s FIFA World Cup<\/a> and the Rugby World Cup in 2031.<\/p>\n \u201cThis leaning into the decade of sport and whatnot really goes back to how this administration sees sport as a way to project power nationally, to project a so-called soft power in a really hard world,\u201d Sisk explains.<\/p>\n Both Sisk and Krieger suggest sportswashing is at play with the US\u2019s increased hosting of major sporting events. The concept is when a country uses a sports event to \u2018wash itself clean\u2019 of a negative reputation. In the last decade, Saudi Arabia<\/a> has been widely accused of sportswashing, particularly in light of its human rights record.<\/p>\n \u201cSportswashing is done by all types of regimes, but it\u2019s perfectly favoured by autocratic regimes,\u201d Sisk explains. \u201cThis is not anything new, and certainly not anything new for far-right regimes.<\/p>\n \u201cAll eyes are on the FIFA World Cup in June, no doubt about that. There are so many dimensions to the politicisation and symbolism of the FIFA World Cup, though I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s actually going to be pulled off because of these threats and boycotts.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Last month, the former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, suggested that he supported fans boycotting the World Cup matches in the US after he tweeted, \u201cI think Mark Pieth [a Swiss anti-corruption lawyer who said fans should stay away from the US] is right to question this World Cup,\u201d to his 1.3 million followers on X.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is huge concern about the role of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] at the World Cup,\u201d Sisk adds. \u201cThere is this fear of potential detention, which is an incredible fear to face, if you\u2019re an athlete or a fan coming to watch a match. This is a real violation of the role of sport seeking to be neutral.\u201c<\/p>\n Is it just a game?<\/p>\n Krieger sees the US vs Denmark ice hockey match as much more politically insignificant than Sisk, and cites his experience interviewing Cold War hockey players.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing an oral history project where I visit a lot of Danish Olympians who were athletes in Cold War times,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the history we teach and we learn is about \u2018the tensions\u2019. And there were the Russians, and there were the Americans, but they were just athletes to them. It was just about performing. It didn\u2019t matter whether they were playing the Soviets, Norwegians or Americans; they wanted to win.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sporting competition for them was about the sport. It wasn\u2019t about politics. And my feeling is that this has not changed much.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Will Krieger still be watching the match, though?<\/p>\n \u201cI will absolutely watch this. Because I think there\u2019s a study there to see what the Danish media, television media refer to during the game, because they might be more political than they usually are.\u201d<\/p>\n And Sisk?<\/p>\n \u201cI will be watching it delayed, and probably won\u2019t jump up early. I will watch as much of the Winter Olympics as I possibly can,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to think about that particular match, as there\u2019ll be an interpretation of symbolism, whether the athletes want it or not. But what will be very interesting, too, is how the athletes themselves behave.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we\u2019re going to see is extremely good behaviour on the part of the athletes. I do think the match could contribute to, at least among the populations in Denmark and in the US, a kind of understanding that \u2018We\u2019re old friends. This little thing over Greenland was a big mistake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The United States plays Denmark at 20:10 GMT on Saturday, 14 February \u2013 watch live on BBC iPlayer<\/a><\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this winter.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and how we fund our work to end poverty.<\/p>\n You can also support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0magazine subscription<\/a>. Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of May 2025, Denmark was ranked 8th in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), while the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27,26,5705,1586,9643,2812,1158,2807],"class_list":{"0":"post-12531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denmark","8":"tag-danmark","9":"tag-denmark","10":"tag-feature","11":"tag-global-politics","12":"tag-international-politics","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-sport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Vsevolod_bobrov.jpg\")
Vsevolod Bobrov with the Soviet Team in the\u00a01956 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament. Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n