Greenland’s Olympic siblings eager to assist shield homeland
Though he hasn’t set foot in Italy, the shadow of US President Donald Trump has loomed large over the Winter Olympics. From public squabbles with critical US skiers to the British athlete who urinated a profanity against him in the snow and protests against the presence of US ICE agents in Italy for the Games, the US president is on plenty of minds.
You may expect, given his threats to annex their homeland, that this would be particularly true for the two Greenlandic athletes at the Games. But Sondre Slettemark, who finished 62nd in the men’s 20-kilometer biathlon on Tuesday, told DW he has no words for Trump.
“I wouldn’t say anything to Trump. Honestly, if I were to say something, I would say something to the American people. And that is that the president is not a dictator yet.
“I know there are a lot of Americans who don’t feel represented by the things he’s saying and with the things he’s doing. So you can call your senators, you can call your congressmen, you can go out protesting. It’s your right to do so. At some point, he’s going to have to answer to you if you don’t feel represented. If he still doesn’t answer to you, you can kick him out.”
Family affair for Greenland biathlon
Sondre and his sister, Ukaleq, are both competing for the Commonwealth of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands in Milano Cortina, as Greenland has no Olympic committee of its own. And the older sibling, who followed in their father’s footsteps by competing at the 2022 Games, is keen to state her commitment to Greenland’s status quo.
“The message I have is that Greenland will never be American. But I’m at the Olympic Games now, and I’m first and foremost an athlete, and I first and foremost need to focus on my competitions here,” Ukaleq told DW ahead of her race on Wednesday.
“I think the statement that we send is just that we race for Denmark, we race for Greenland, we show the world stage that we are here.”
Sondre and Ukaleq usually comprise the entire Greenland biathlon team, with the federation founded and headed by their mother Uiloq and supported by their father, Oystein, who represented Denmark in 2010 despite being born in Brazil.
“Biathlon is not a big sport in Greenland. We don’t have a shooting range. We do have tracks, but it’s not so easy to to do the sport there,” said Ukaleq of the discipline which features cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
“My mum and dad were the ones who really made the biathlon in Greenland even exist at all.
“They traveled around with me when I was like 0 to 4. So I’ve been at all the World Cup and IBU Cup (the second biggest biathlon event after the World Cup) places even before I can remember.”
Greenlanders are built different
It is that sense of family and community that is a key driver for both siblings’ expressions of national pride. They echo the feelings of many Greenlanders when Trump’s rhetoric on the country was at a peak earlier this year: Hands off.
“Our cultures are so different. In Greenland, we are very much still a people who are a part of nature,” explained Ukaleq. “We’re indigenous people. We see ourselves as not different from nature. We don’t put money above nature, for example. We don’t like to exploit the ground, to exploit the minerals. And that mindset is so different from what Trump has.”
While Trump’s threats to take Greenland by force may have faded, his intentions to ‘own’ the territory are resolute.
“I’m afraid to lose our beautiful country,” continued Ukaleq, who finished 52nd in the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon.
“I’m afraid that our nature will be exploited. Because we have so much freedom, so many untouched areas that are not asphalt, that are not buildings that are just pure mountains, pure rivers, pure oceans.”
Such geographical features are not just vital for Winter Olympians, but for all Greenlanders. The Slettemarks are determined to use their Olympic stage to help keep them from the US.
Edited: by Chuck Penfold
