Europe’s rising diversity is not reflected at the Winter Olympics. Culture plays a big role

AP ^ | 01 26 2026 | STEVE DOUGLAS

[yesthatjallen]

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.

SNIP

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TOPICS: Editorial; European Union; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assimilation; assimilationfail; chat; chatforum; dissociatedpress; diversity; eussr; failure2assimilate; fourthreich; import3rdworld; olympics; race; stevedouglas; white

[yesthatjallen]

Olympics too White.

[dfwgator]

Imagine that. Black people aren’t into luge.

Hey at least Herschel Walker was a member of the US Bobsled Team.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Must be getting weak. Diversity is a strength you know.

[Antoninus]

So “rising diversity” is what they are calling cultural obliteration these days? Nice.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Native cultures bad.

[FrankRizzo890]

The horror, the horror.

[V_TWIN]

Well, the USA was able to scrape up a black female
flag bearer for opening ceremonies so there’s that. 🤷‍♂️

[dfwgator]

Is she gay, too? Gotta cover all those bases.

[stanne]

I have a t shirt that says ski Saudi.

[xp38]

They need an event that includes beheading to attract the jihadis.

[V_TWIN]

“As a Black woman from Somalia, she felt like an “alien.”

“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination”

Thomas Sowell

[ClearCase_guy]

“The native culture here is simply awful.”
“Hey! Hey! You can’t say that! I take that personally! I’m from Nigeria! Are you saying my culture is awful??”
“Relax. I’m from Pakistan, you know. But we’re in London. And I’m looking around, and I’m saying that the native culture is simply awful.”
“Oh. Right. Totally agree. We need to wipe this people out. So backwards. So white. It’s awful.”

[dfwgator]

As a Black woman from Somalia, she felt like an “alien.”

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Gee I can’t imagine why, could it be because SHE CAME FROM FRICKIN’ SOMALIA!?!?!?!

[Leaning Right]

I’ve got a foolproof way to address these diversity complaints. And I’m actually surprised no one has thought of it before.

Eliminate all actual human competition. Replace the humans with robots controlled by AI.

All of the excitement. None of the racism.

[Toughluck_freeper]

The original Post is racist in my opinion. The Olympics are a celebration of MERIT, and ACHIEVEMENT. They are not there to show case representation or diversity, that's racist. That is why when Owens won the Olympics on PERFORMANCE, he embarrassed the heck out of Hitler and his ideas of a superior race.

Trying to pick athletes based on diversity instead of performance is racist and an affront to the spirit of the Olympics

[dfwgator]

The flip side of the 1936 Games:

American Olympic head, Avery Brundage, left off two Jewish athletes from the US Relay Team, in order to kiss Hitler’s ass.

[READINABLUESTATE]

Not enough Jamacian bob sledders?

[Tax-chick]

the 30-year-old student

[dfwgator]

Snoop seems cool with it.

[escapefromboston]

Decolonize Europe