Winter Olympics 2026 hockey followers show Greenland flag throughout USA win over Denmark
Throughout Crew USA’s comeback males’s hockey win over Denmark on the Winter Olympics, two followers raised the flag of Greenland within the stands to protest President Donald Trump’s intent to purchase Greenland for the US.
The flag was raised enthusiastically after Denmark took an early lead.
Nonetheless, the US got here again to win the sport 6-3.
Vita Kalniņa and her husband Alexander Kalniņš, followers of the Latvian hockey workforce who stay in Germany, held up a big Greenland flag throughout warmups and once more when the Danish workforce scored the opening aim of the preliminary spherical recreation towards the US, which finally beat Denmark 6-3.
“We’re Europeans, and I believe as Europeans we should maintain collectively,” Kalniņš informed The Related Press.
“The Greenlandic individuals resolve what’s going to occur with Greenland, however, as it’s now, Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom and, as Greenland is part of Denmark, as on this case, we assist each nations towards the US.”
A Danish fan on the recreation, Dennis Petersen, mentioned, “It doesn’t matter no matter sport it’s — it could possibly be tennis, it could possibly be bobsledding, it may be ice hockey, it could possibly be soccer — it has nothing to do with politics. … They’re athletes, not politicians.”
An American fan on the recreation, Rem de Rohan, mentioned, “I believe that is the time for individuals to sort of put that down and compete nation versus nation and revel in,” he mentioned. “We love rooting on each nation that’s been right here.”
Followers on social media had their very own reactions to the flag show and the results of the sport.
“Now that the USA is up 4-2 might we place a wager that if the USA wins the sport, Denmark provides up Greenland?” one fan wrote in response to the flag.
One fan wrote, “Crew USA gained, will we get Greenland now?”
One other fan equally mentioned, “How did that end up? we gained, we get greenland now.”
Some American conservative influencers used the US victory as a springboard to make viral jokes about annexing Greenland.
The comeback victory by the US appeared unsure early within the recreation.
After trailing 2-1 via the primary interval, the Individuals dominated on offense to take a 6-3 victory over Denmark Saturday within the Milan Cortina Olympic Video games.
The Individuals scored three unanswered objectives to open the second interval, with 4 Nations hero Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators), Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights) and Noah Hanifin (Vegas Golden Knights) discovering the again of the online.
Each units of brothers on the workforce — Brady and Matthew Tkachuk and Jack and Quinn Hughes — every had a degree within the contest. Fourteen gamers had factors for the Individuals with a distinct aim scorer every time the lamp was lit.
The Individuals had 47 photographs on aim in comparison with Denmark’s 21.
The US ends preliminary play Sunday with a recreation towards Germany at 3:10 p.m. ET. The Individuals will as soon as once more be heavy favorites, and a victory will put them into the knockout stage.
The Individuals also can go proper to the knockout stage with an extra time loss. With a regulation loss, their destiny can be decided by Canada’s recreation towards France and level differentials with Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.
However as a heavy favourite towards a German workforce with simply eight NHL gamers, the US might not want to fret.
