Heated rivalry: US to face Denmark in Olympic ice hockey showdown

Their rendezvous may be on Valentine’s Day, but its nature looks likely to be anything but romantic: Denmark and the US, their relations frostier than they have been for decades, are due to face each other in ice hockey next month.A week into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the Danish Lions are scheduled to play Team USA in a preliminary round game at Milan’s Santagiulia ice hockey arena on 14 February, according to the official programme.Bilateral diplomatic ties have been strained to breaking point by Donald Trump’s aggressive drive to seize Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, which the US president has said he will take “one way or the other”.The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has criticised what she called “completely unacceptable pressure” from the US, saying: “Borders cannot be changed by force, and small countries should not fear large countries.”Trump doubled down over the weekend, threatening to bring in new tariffs for eight European countries including Denmark until they dropped their objections to his plans, and telling Norway’s prime minister the US needed “complete and total control of Greenland”.Tens of thousand of Danes joined Greenlanders in demonstrating across the kingdom on Saturday in protest at the US president’s territorial ambitions for the Arctic island, holding aloft signs saying “Hands off Greenland” and “Greenland is not for sale”.Ice hockey, a fast-paced, highly physical game in which tempers often flare, is no stranger to politically charged contests. The 1980 Winter Olympics played host to the “Miracle on Ice” in which a young, mainly amateur US team beat the Soviet Union, the four-time defending gold medallists.Sport has often collided with diplomacy, in encounters such as the Hungary-USSR water polo match at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, when the Hungarian team arrived in Australia to be told Soviet tanks had just rolled into Budapest.The two teams met in the semi-final, with Hungary winning 4-0 after an ill-tempered and violent match marked by kicking, gouging and punching from both sides. Five players were ejected and the game became known as the “Blood in the Water” match.Team USA top the 2025 ice hockey world rankings and are considered among the tournament favourites, with Denmark, competing in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics for only the second time, ranked eighth and widely seen as underdogs.The stakes have also been raised by the inclusion of players from North America’s National Hockey League (NHL) at the Games for the first time since 2014, meaning many of the world’s best players – including several from Denmark – will be competing.The Danish player Nikolaj Ehlers, who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL, said it was “a proud moment. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” His compatriot Mads Søgaard from the Ottawa Senators told the NHL website he was “proud to represent my home country”.Ehlers added that Denmark aimed to “do everything we can, and battle as hard as we can – and I think if we do that, then good things will happen”. Neither player commented on any political feelings about the US match.