The Associated Press (AP) accused several European nations competing in the Winter Olympics of having a lack of diversity on their teams, claiming they are “overwhelmingly white.”
In an article from the AP, the outlet highlighted how “immigration from Africa and the Middle East has transformed the demographics of Europe in recent decades.” The outlet also noted that while the United States was “sending one of its most diverse teams,” the team rosters for countries such as France, Germany, and Switzerland “look a lot like Sweden’s: overwhelmingly white and lacking the immigrant representation.”
“At the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Sweden is sending a team made up almost exclusively of ethnically Swedish athletes, with NHL player Mika Zibanejad, whose father is from Iran, a rare exception,” the AP wrote. “That hardly reflects the diversity of the Nordic country: About 2 million of its 10 million residents were born abroad, about half of them in Asia or Africa, according to national statistics agency SCB.”
The AP article continued in part:
The lack of athletes of color at the Winter Olympics — and in winter sports in general — has been a recurring theme in the U.S., which is sending one of its most diverse teams to the Games. It hasn’t gotten the same attention in Europe.
The Olympic rosters of France, Germany, Switzerland and other European winter sports nations look a lot like Sweden’s: overwhelmingly white and lacking the immigrant representation seen in their soccer or basketball teams.
In the article, Maryan Hashi — a Somali migrant, who “came to Sweden with her family in 2009” explained to the outlet how it wasn’t until 2018 that she discovered “there was a ski slope five minutes from her home, after a co-worker suggested she try snowboarding as part of a pilot integration project.”
“When you don’t have information or access or anybody around you does it — snowboarding is basically a white sport — and when you’re not correctly integrated into the community, you don’t know much about it,” Hashi told the outlet.
Josef Fahlen, who works as a “professor of sport pedagogy at Umea University in Sweden,” explained to the outlet how “the children of non-European immigrants are unlikely to be introduced to sports that their parents are not familiar with.”:
Pointing to Isak, whose parents are from Eritrea, or tennis players Mikael and Elias Ymer, whose parents migrated to Sweden from Ethiopia, he said the children of non-European immigrants are unlikely to be introduced to sports that their parents are not familiar with.
“Take the example of Isak finding his way into football — it makes total sense because football exists in Eritrea. Skiing doesn’t,” Fahlen said.
“The U.S. is not alone in grappling with diversity in winter sports,” the AP wrote in a post on X, which included a video. “In Europe, immigration from Africa and the Middle East has rapidly changed the demographics of the top winter sports countries. That won’t be reflected in their rosters for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.”
“Wait, you’re telling me people from the Middle East and Africa aren’t dominating the Alpine Skiing events?” one person wrote in a post.
“I, for one, am shocked that recent refugees from the eastern deserts of Syria aren’t dominating the Finnish Ski Jumping team,” another person wrote.
“Why should diversity be limited by immigration? Where are China’s Africans?” Breitbart News’s John Carney wrote in a post on X. “Where are the African teams with Hispanics? Why not more Whites on Zimbabwe’s teams?”
“As we all know, Somali migrants are renowned for their skill on the ski slopes,” Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips wrote in a post on X.
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