By STEVE DOUGLAS, AP Sports Writer

VASTERAS, Sweden (AP) — Maryan Hashi remembers the thoughts running through her mind when she began hitting the ski slopes in northern Sweden. As a Black woman from Somalia, she felt like an “alien.”

“Am I wearing the correct clothing for this? Does it fit? Do I look weird? Am I snowboarding correctly? Do they think it’s weird I’m on the slope?” she said. “But I carried on — I felt if I didn’t, I was never going to commit to anything in my life.”

A few years later, snowboarding is the 30-year-old student’s big passion and it is helping her integrate into her adopted country’s society better than she could ever have imagined.

What she’d love now is to see other migrants experiencing the same joy.

Immigration from Africa and the Middle East has transformed the demographics of Europe in recent decades. And while the growing diversity is reflected in many sports such as soccer — Sweden’s men’s national team has several Black players including Liverpool striker Alexander Isak — it hasn’t made a dent in winter sports.

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. 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 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.

Researchers point to social, financial and geographical barriers, and believe a big cultural shift is needed for anything to change.

“It takes not years but decades,” said Josef Fahlen, professor of sport pedagogy at Umea University in Sweden.

Entering a ‘white’ sport

Hashi was 14 when she came to Sweden with her family in 2009. They settled in Skelleftea, a mining city around 770 kilometers (480 miles) north of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, where winters are long and temperatures can be extremely cold. She found it a culture shock and said it was “scary” to integrate with native Swedes because of language difficulties, so her friendship group consisted of fellow migrants from Somalia and other African countries.

Only in 2018 did she discover 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 run by the municipality.

“When you don’t have information or access or nobody 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 said.

She initially felt out of place but grew to love her daily trips to the slope, even when numbers dwindled in the group. She even started to teach kids and her immigrant friends — those who’d been skeptical about Hashi doing an activity that’s “not our thing” — how to snowboard.

“I’ve made my mind up,” Hashi said, “that snowboarding is going to be a part of my family.”

The crucial role of parents

The single biggest influence on children getting into — and maintaining an interest in — a particular sport is their parents, according to Fahlen. That, he said, is the “simple” explanation for the lack of diversity in the ski slopes in Sweden and across Europe.

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.

Fahlen regards the lack of diversity as not a “winter sports problem but a cultural issue” and said it’s important for kids to see winter sports athletes with a different skin tone.

“It’s a matter of horizon,” Fahlen said. “We need to show it’s possible to be a skier even if you might be from Tunisia or the West Bank.”

There are also financial and geographical factors at play. Immigrants in Sweden typically live in major urban areas, away from skiing hubs in the mountains, and are often in less-privileged economic positions. Participating in winter sports can be expensive because of the need to buy or rent equipment and clothing, and paying for travel and a ski pass.

Improving access for immigrants

Academics believe more needs to be done by winter sports to improve accessibility for immigrants and underserved communities.

“It’s a fact that the best integrative force in society is team sports and sports clubs, where kids can go to do useful things together with others,” said Stefan Jonsson, a professor in Ethnicity and Migration Studies at Linköping University. “There is so much research saying if we want social and ethnic integration, this would be the primary thing.”

Asked about its attempts to get more people from diverse backgrounds into skiing, Sweden’s ski federation said “we want to be better” and added that “inclusion is something we strive for.”

The federation is proud of its “Alla På Snö” (“Everyone On Snow”) program, which since 2008 has reached an estimated 30,000 children every year and offers students free equipment and access to slopes. Also boosting general accessibility is the growth of Sweden’s Leisure Bank project, where people can borrow sports equipment including skis and ski boots for free for 14 days. The founders equate the banks to public libraries.

Neither specifically targets immigrants, however. For Hashi, it’s a missed opportunity to widen the talent pool.

“Open the door for us,” Hashi said. “We’re going to take care of the next generation for you.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer

The moment Amber Glenn stepped onto the ice at figure skating’s world championships, fans began to wave American flags, from the lowest rows inside TD Garden to the highest rafters, where the jerseys of Boston’s sporting greats hang in honor.

It seemed a fitting backdrop to her program: Glenn is the three-time reigning U.S. champion, one of the current faces of figure skating, and as the daughter of a police officer and a proud native Texan, patriotism flows through her as thick as oil.

Yet the stars-and-stripes weren’t the only flags flying high that night.

Scattered throughout the sellout crowd at the last worlds before the Milan Cortina Olympics were the equally conspicuous rainbow flags that for nearly 50 years have signified pride within the LGBTQ+ community. They started popping up at Glenn’s competitions a year earlier, when she carried one across her shoulders in celebration of her national championship.

“I saw them,” Glenn acknowledged later, long after her performance, “and I was proud to see both of those flags flying.”

Glenn, who identifies as pansexual, never sought to be an icon within the queer community.

In fact, she didn’t come to grips with her own sexuality until she had been through the wringer, including a stint in a mental health facility spent working through depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. Glenn didn’t come out publicly until letting it slip during an interview a half-dozen years ago, and then thought with horror, “I haven’t even told my Catholic grandma yet!”

Yet as the 26-year-old Glenn reflected on her journey in an interview with The Associated Press, she expressed a profound sense of gratitude for having experienced it within the tight-knit figure skating world. For decades, the sport has provided a progressive sort of safe space for those within the LGTBQ+ community, some of whom still may be trying to realize their authentic selves.

“I’m so, so grateful that I grew up in skating, because I grew up in Texas, and luckily it was Dallas, which was still a bit more forward,” Glenn said. “Plus, I was homeschooled. So I had to figure out a lot of things on my own, coming from that background.

“But as I ventured out to competitions, you know, outside of Texas,” Glenn continued, “I ended up seeing this community and these people around me, and they were some of the top coaches and really good skaters. I was like, ‘Oh, OK. This is OK.’ It made me realize, ‘OK, there are people who are fans of me that would probably feel even more connected if they saw someone like them.’”

The long and winding road

It hasn’t always been that way in figure skating, a sport where success and failure is quite literally a judgment call, and looks, attitude and mannerisms all matter in the scores. Throughout the 1900s, and even into the ‘80s and ’90s, women often were encouraged to be more effeminate, and male counterparts were told to embrace their masculinity.

It wasn’t until Rudy Galindo came out in a book released shortly before he was crowned U.S. champion in 1996 that walls began to crumble. Three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir, now a lead analyst for NBC’s coverage of the Olympics, said later that Galindo gave him the confidence to come out in 2011, and ultimately embrace who he was both on the ice and off.

Eventually, other prominent skaters came forward, some of whom had never publicly acknowledged their sexuality. Each had their reasons, whether personal, political or simply the desire to give back to the community.

As the U.S. team was preparing for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, former Olympic champion Brian Boitano was picked to be a part of the delegation. At the time, the Russian government was under fire for an anti-gay “propaganda” law passed in June 2013, and Boitano told the AP that he never considered coming out until he was chosen to represent his country again.

“They know how private a person I am,” Boitano said, “and that this was a big move for me.”

Success on big stages

While LGBTQ+ athletes compete in just about every sport, what might set figure skating apart — at least, presently — has been their success on the biggest stages, whether they be international competitions, the world championships or even the Olympics.

In 2018, former U.S. champion Adam Rippon not only became the first openly gay man to make the Olympic team but the first to capture a medal at the Winter Games, earning bronze as part of the team event. Four years later, Timothy LeDuc became the first non-binary Olympic athlete by teaming with Ashley Cain-Gribble in the pairs event at the Beijing Games.

“I grew up in a very conservative environment,” explained LeDuc, a two-time U.S. champion, who went into coaching after stepping away from competition. “Sometimes just seeing someone like you in that community is what you need to feel comfortable in yourself. That continued in my journey, where I saw a lot of queer people in my life.

“Even in high school, there was one or two queer people,” LeDuc said, “but it was always figure skating where I found my community.”

Where things stand

Glenn had just won her first elite-level Grand Prix event in Angers, France, in November 2024, when Donald Trump won the presidential election in the U.S. She remembers watching the results scroll across the TV screen.

Glenn’s heart sank, thinking about what it would mean for the LGBTQ+ community.

Two months later Trump signed an executive order defining “sex” in federal policy as a binary, biological concept unchangeable from birth. It was the first move made by an administration that has been accused of targeting the rights and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community, such as rolling back protections in education, healthcare and housing. The administration pitched the changes as a way to protect women from “gender extremism.”

“Both of my grandpas were in the military. I was raised in Texas, a proud American,” Glenn told AP. “It was so disheartening. It made me feel even closer to the community around me, because we had to come together to try and protect ourselves.”

Those feelings continue among many in the LGBTQ+ community.

One of the reasons that fan-favorite Jason Brown, a two-time Olympian, came out in an Instagram post five years ago was to provide support to those who may feel uncomfortable — skaters, of course, but also coaches, choreographers and even fans.

“I hope I can leave the sport a little better for the next athlete, or make someone more comfortable to step up and be who they are,” Brown said. “There are so many people out there that love and support that community, and they want them to feel safe and seen and accepted. I think that my biggest message is, ‘Know how supported you are.’”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By DANIELLA MATAR, AP Sports Writer

MILAN (AP) — When Lucas Pinheiro Braathen tells people in Brazil that he represents the country in Alpine skiing, he says they don’t believe him.

They just might if he wins Brazil’s first Winter Olympics medal next month.

“When I meet someone new (in Brazil) … it’s always this mindblowing moment and it always sparks a very interesting conversation,” Pinheiro Braathen said with a smile in a recent interview with The Associated Press in Milan. “And funny enough, I actually think it’s those interactions that maybe prove the most how fulfilling it is for me to represent Brazil in something like skiing because it just shows me how foreign it is. So that’s really fun.”

If Pinheiro Braathen does finish on the podium, it would also be a first Winter Olympics medal for any South American country, something he wasn’t aware of.

“I mean thanks you just added a whole other layer of pressure so I’ll happily bring that along,” he laughed. “The greater the challenge, the greater the difference that I can bring and I believe it is the more pressure you feel, the bigger the difference that you can create.”

Pinheiro Braathen’s mother is Brazilian and his father is Norwegian. He had raced for Norway until abruptly retiring on the eve of the new season in 2023, only to come back a year later representing Brazil.

The 2023 World Cup slalom champion has already racked up a series of firsts under his new flag, becoming the first Brazilian skier to finish on a World Cup podium last year before claiming the country’s first victory this season to add to his five for Norway.

“I simply try to capitalize off of that pressure and channel it into my performance because, yes, it makes the days leading into the competition extremely challenging because you know you have something greater to live up to rather than just the possibility of a great result,” Pinheiro Braathen said.

“But it is exactly that that enables you to become the version of yourself where you can beat every single other athlete at that start gate and so, as I said, pressure is privilege. It is my most important currency.”

Snow samba

Pinheiro Braathen likes to entertain. When he got his first podium result for Brazil, he celebrated with a samba dance. His reaction after claiming his first win was more visceral, as he fell to his knees and screamed “yeah!” with both arms in the air.

The 25-year-old admits he has no clue what he would do if he was to succeed in Bormio, where the men’s Alpine ski racing will take place at the Olympics.

“If you achieve immense success in something that you’ve dedicated your life to, at least for me, it is impossible to curate what those moments look like,” Pinheiro Braathen said. “It is truly whatever you feel that sees the light of day and that’s what I think is so beautiful about those moments and it is simply what I chase every single day waking up. Yet another day getting to experience that feeling.”

Pinheiro Braathen is one of skiing’s most vibrant personalities, known for painting his fingernails and having a taste for fashion. He brings to the slopes the energy of Brazil and the discipline of Norway, having spent much of his childhood in both countries.

“I’m a person of cultural duality,” he said. “Two perspectives always presented from birth and so for me I always find that I’ve never been living a life where I’m only presented to one reality, one culture or one way of living. It’s always been these polar opposites and so I think that has shaped me to become who I am today and how I want to live my life.

A father’s love

Pinheiro Braathen has a close relationship with his father, Björn Braathen. So much so that he named the reindeer he won as part of the traditional winner’s prize at the World Cup in Levi after him.

It was his father who introduced him to skiing, when he was 4 or 5, though Pinheiro Braathen didn’t take to it initially.

“I bought everything for him, like shoes, like boots and skis and everything, and we went out and he would complain the whole time,” Braathen said. “Like “I’m cold, I’m not cut out for this, I’m freezing,” and, “I’m Brazilian and this is not for me.”

A love for the sport eventually arrived. Braathen, who also serves as his son’s team manager, doesn’t mind that his son switched allegiances.

“As a Norwegian, people expect me to feel very bad about that, but I don’t,” he said. “It’s my son and I just want him to be happy.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By STEPHEN WHYNO

Jack Eichel in the fall of 2021 still did not believe he and the rest of the world’s best hockey players would be going to the Olympics in Beijing a few months later, even after the NHL reached an agreement to do so.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Eichel said at the time.

His skepticism proved to be prescient, as pandemic scheduling issues led the league to withdraw.

Eichel is part of a generation of NHL stars who have never gotten the chance to play in the Olympics. Unlike players of the past — before the league allowed its stars to take part — Eichel, fellow American Auston Matthews, Canadians Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon and many others of their vintage grew up expecting to go to the Games. The NHL, after all, played in five consecutive Olympics from 1998 2014.

Owners opted against sending players in 2018, and missing out in 2022 became a sad result of circumstances largely out of stakeholders’ control. The 12-team tournament in Milan is a moment many have been waiting their entire careers for.

“It’s awesome,” Eichel said before this season, perhaps willing to exhale. “It’s something that we’ve wanted for a while.”

Construction delays bring more questions

Not so fast, Jack.

Out of his control are construction delays at the main hockey arena, a longstanding worry. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman began raising concerns all the way back in 2023, before the deal was reached to send players in 2026 and ’30.

“We have been given assurances that the building will be ready,” Bettman said in February 2024. “We’re relying on those assurances. There’s a lot of construction that remains to be done on that building. I think they only recently started. But we’re being told by everybody not to worry. But I like to worry, so we’ll see.”

Those worries have persisted, and work continues on locker rooms and other facilities at Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which is set to host the majority of the men’s games beginning Feb. 11. The women’s tournament begins there Feb. 5.

Test games in January left league and players’ union officials pleased about the condition of the ice, though even that has been a matter of consternation after rinks were made more than 3 feet shorter than NHL players are used to. That will change aspects of play but won’t keep the NHL out of the Olympics as long as everyone involved agrees the surface is safe.

What players missed out on

Connor Bedard, the 2023 No. 1 pick who just missed out on making Canada’s roster for Milan, is so young at 20 that he does not even have a favorite Olympic memory. He was 4 when idol and fellow countryman Sidney Crosby scored the “golden goal” to win on home ice in Vancouver in 2010 and 9 when T.J. Oshie gave the U.S. a shootout victory over host Russia in Sochi in 2014.

Canada’s Macklin Celebrini, drafted first in 2024 and at 19 the second-youngest men’s hockey player at the Olympics, has only gotten to dream about the possibility of representing his country on this stage.

“That’s the pinnacle, just the best on best, all the special moments that have happened at the Olympics, the history,” Celebrini said. “There’s just a little bit more energy around it. It’s bigger than yourself.”

In all, 12 NHL players are back at the Olympics after participating in the 2014 Games, the last time the league went and it was a true best-vs.-best tournament. The group includes Crosby and Drew Doughty for Canada; Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Karlsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson for Sweden; Mikael Granlund and Olli Maatta for Finland; Radko Gudas and Ondrej Palat for Czechia. There are no Americans on that list.

“It’s a cherry on top of athletic life,” Gudas said. “Twelve years ago when we went to Sochi was such a great experience that I wish I can do that again. I was that much more sad that we couldn’t go the last two times, so for me I think it’s a great feeling to be able to do that.”

American defenseman Zach Werenski at 28 is old enough to remember Crosby’s goal in 2010, and four years later he was watching Oshie’s heroics with other members of the U.S. National Team Development Program. Four of his teammates from back then are also set to go to Milan — Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and Noah Hanifin — to finally have their Olympic moment.

“The significance of that, the build-up, we’ve waited a long time for this,” McAvoy said, “so it’s going to be incredible.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics