Biathlon-Greenland siblings putting pride before protest at Winter Olympics

Jan 31 : After a whirlwind few weeks, the brother-and-sister biathlon team of Sondre and Ukaleq Slettemark have put politics aside to focus on making Greenland proud at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

The pair have received an enormous amount of media attention after criticising U.S. President Donald Trump for his desire to take over Greenland, but now they want to focus on showing the best side of their nation at the Olympics. 

They will represent the Commonwealth of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands at the Games, which start on February 6.

"I think we're both very proud to show that Greenland and Denmark are standing strong together," Ukaleq, 24, told Reuters.

"I agree - normally, we race just for Greenland with our own side, but now in the Olympics, it's going to be under the Danish flag," Sondre, who is three years younger, added.

The two spoke to Reuters over Zoom from their training base in Obertilliach, Austria, not far from where the biathlon competitions at the Games will take place in northern Italy.

They appear to have taken being thrust into the limelight in their stride, pivoting from talking about politics to proclaiming their pride in their country and the support they feel from its people.

"People in Greenland are really proud and they follow us, and we always get a lot of people who congratulate us when we're at home and, yeah, people are really supportive," Ukaleq said. 

"I think we don't have that many people who compete and represent the flag on an international stage," Sondre added.

"There's a lot of people who do sports, but most of them do it mainly in Greenland so, at least for me, I feel very proud that I can bring the flag also out to an international stage in the World Cup, in the World