The Milan Winter Olympics have been surrounded by geopolitical chatter with President Donald Trump\u2019s interest in acquiring Greenland. And it was evident that when Team USA and Denmark would face each other at the Games, it would cause diplomatic awkwardness between the two teams. So, on Saturday evening, the two teams met at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, and the same topic came forward.<\/p>\n
According to Daily Mail Sport, Lars Eller, the veteran Ottawa Senators forward and Stanley Cup champion, acknowledged that Donald Trump\u2019s ambitions have become a point of discussion among his teammates. \u201cIt has come up a lot. Is it the same message over there in the U.S. as it is in Denmark? What is going on, what are they saying, how do they view things? But I think you can have a good conversation and dialogue, reasonable, with most people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAt least, I have. Anyway, it seems to have settled down here the last little bit.\u201d Well, Eller was the only Danish player to give his stance on the geopolitical element at the Winter Olympics. However, he managed to keep it neutral with his words, as the hockey star confirmed that their goal was to compete rather than meddle in such matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not used to being in the news that much. I feel like every week, there\u2019s something new, and whatever was in the news last week is forgotten quickly and we move on. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s on our minds, what\u2019s going on politically in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Similar sentiments were all over the Danish team. Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, who was also Denmark\u2019s flag carrier in the opening ceremony, conveyed his opinion on this matter, stating, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really mean anything to us, the whole political situation. I love Denmark and it\u2019s in my opinion the greatest country on earth. I don\u2019t think this is the platform to discuss politics, but of course I follow everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of writing this article, Denmark is fighting Team USA quite well. The score is 4-3 at the end of the second period in the American squad\u2019s favor, but in hockey anything can happen.<\/p>\n
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However, Donald Trump\u2019s statements prompted a backlash, as several Greenlandic athletes expressed their criticism of the President of the United States.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s interest has hurt the native\u2019s feelings<\/p>\n
\u201cGreenland will never be American. We race for Denmark, we race for Greenland, we show the world stage that we are here. I\u2019m afraid to lose our beautiful country, and I\u2019m afraid that our nature will be exploited. Because we have so much freedom, we have so much untouched areas,\u201d said Ukaleq Slettlemark, while talking to the reporters at the Milan Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n She added, \u201cWe\u2019re indigenous people, we see ourselves as not different from nature. We don\u2019t put money above nature, we don\u2019t like to exploit the ground, exploit the minerals. And that mindset is so different from what Trump has.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Similarly, her brother Sondre said, \u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of Americans who doesn\u2019t feel represented with the things he\u2019s saying and with the things he\u2019s doing. You can kick him out, I guess, or make him change his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n The Slettlemark siblings grew up together on the island, home to 57,000 inhabitants, and with the geopolitical tensions rising with President Donald Trump\u2019s statements, this has caused them to be concerned for their homeland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milan Winter Olympics have been surrounded by geopolitical chatter with President Donald Trump\u2019s interest in acquiring Greenland.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,184,4901,57,5479,10479,9369,10481,9579,10480,2511,2739],"class_list":["post-13638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-denmark","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-greenland","tag-lars-eller","tag-milano-santagiulia-ice-hockey-arena","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-palm-beach","tag-team-usa","tag-washington-district-of-columbia","tag-white-house","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13638","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=13638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}