The agency found out that the Greenlandic flag was raised by Latvian national team fans Vita Kalniņa and Aleksandars Kalnins living in Germany, who were rooting for Denmark in that match.
They raised the flag during the warm-up and after the first puck scored by the Danish hockey players (in the end, the USA won with a score of 6:3, but the Danes scored first in the second minute of the match).
Latvians told The Associated Press that they were displaying the Greenland flag “as a symbol of European unity” and support for Greenland even if the island chooses full independence.
According to them, sports arena employees later approached them with a request “for security reasons” not to raise the flag – allegedly because there could be “aggressive Americans” in the stands.
Kalniņa and Kalnins did not mind because they wanted to watch the game. They also explained to journalists that by that time they had already achieved their goal – everyone had already seen the Greenland flag, and “the message was conveyed.”
The agency writes that “the status of the Greenlandic flag at the Games is unclear” because Greenlandic athletes (particularly biathletes) compete on the Danish team, and instructions on the official Olympics website state that fans can only bring “flags of countries and territories participating in the Games.”
The captain of the Danish hockey team, Jesper Jensen Aabo, said that the players did not see the Greenlandic flag during the match, “but it was nice,” the media notes.
According to him, the political history with Greenland did not affect the hockey between Denmark and the USA.
