Fans who raised Greenland's flag at US-Denmark Olympic hockey game say it was a pro-European gesture

MILAN — Two fans who raised a flag of Greenland as the United States played Denmark in men's hockey at the Winter Olympics 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.

“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 at an Olympic hockey game in Milan 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.

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Kostya Manenkov, James Ellingworth and Stephen Whyno in Milan contributed to this report.