MILAN – They haven’t even really started yet, and they’re already heavily criticized. This year’s Winter Olympics, hosted by Italy in Milan and Cortina, are too white, according to the Associated Press, and the agency lacks the diversity of nations. He criticizes European countries for the fact that, despite the number of migrants who came to the countries, they did not count on them at the Olympics.
The official 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which are in Milan and Cortina, Italy, kicked off on Friday, February 6, with a welcoming ceremony. During it, you are an agency Associated Press (AP) noticed a disturbing fact for them – European countries, which in many cases are a refuge for migrants, do not have an ethnically diverse roster. They criticize the Olympics for being too “white”. In their opinion, the recent influx of migrants to these countries should be immediately represented among their most elite athletes.
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They pointed to Sweden, for example, which has up to 2 million migrants out of 10 million inhabitants, which is 20 percent of the population. Despite this, their team is composed almost exclusively of “white” Swedes. The only exception is NHL player Mika Zibanejad, whose father is of Iranian origin. “That hardly reflects the diversity of this Nordic country: About 2 million of its 10 million people were born abroad, about half of them in Asia or Africa,” criticizes the AP agency, referring to the demographic data of the Swedish Statistical Office.
According to the agency, it is the same on the lists of other countries – for example, France, Germany or Switzerland. Their teams are overwhelmingly made up of white players and lack migrant representation. They pointed out the fact that even though winter sports do not have such representation, summer sports such as football or basketball do.
Expensive and without parental motivation
The Swedish team also includes snowboarder Maryan Hashiová, who immigrated to Sweden with her family as a child and now represents the country at the Games. According to her, integration was difficult and she often felt lonely. She fell in love with winter sports as a child, when she came to it as part of a pilot project aimed at helping newcomers better integrate into the country’s culture. He led the village of Skelleftea, where she grew up. A professor of sports pedagogy at Umea University in Sweden pointed out that the lack of diversity is not a winter sports problem, but a cultural issue.
According to him, it will take decades for the cultural shift and diversity to manifest themselves in winter sports so that not only whites are represented in them, but also migrants, he pointed out to AP. According to him, children follow their parents and if they see them playing football or basketball, not skiing or doing winter sports, the children will follow the same path. “Take the example of Isak, who found his way to football – it makes perfect sense because football exists in Eritrea. Skiing does not.” Fahlen said. Isak is a footballer from Eritrea who grew up in Liverpool and currently plays for the Swedish football team. According to the Swedish Ski Federation, they are also trying to include migrants in winter sports, but so far they are not succeeding. One of the reasons may be the fact that winter sports are expensive due to the need to buy new equipment – clothes, ski boots, skis, but also ski passes.
date:2026-02-08 11:30:00