Associated Press Is Furious About The Lack Of 'Diversity' In Upcoming Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina are rapidly approaching, with the Opening Ceremony in just over a week. It would stand to reason, then, that major media outlets, particularly domestic ones, would be building up anticipation, covering important, US-specific stories, or highlighting Olympians that are favored to win medals in Italy. 

But since when has reason had anything to do with how legacy media covers things in the modern era? 

As just the latest in a long string of ridiculous examples, the Associated Press posted a video to their official X account on Thursday morning that brought up the all-important concern consuming everyone's thoughts heading into February: the rosters for most European countries are too white. 

Seriously, that is what they published. The Winter Olympics are too white. 

"Immigration for Africa and the Middle East is changing the demographics of Europe's top winter sports countries," the voiceover says. "But that hasn't really translated to their largely white rosters heading to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. For instance, Team Sweden is almost entirely made up of ethnically Swedish athletes, which is hardly a reflection of the country's diversity, as Sweden has welcomed historic numbers of asylum seekers in recent decades."

You'd think that would be enough stupidity for one video. But you'd be wrong.

Second place finisher Sara Hector of Sweden celebrates with her team after the women's giant slalom race during the PwC Tremblant alpine skiing World Cup at Mont-Tremblant Ski Resort. (Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images)

AP Embarrasses Itself With New Complaints About Winter Olympics

Incredibly, the video then runs the classic left-wing appeal to authority fallacy: referencing "the experts."

"Experts point to social, financial, and geographical barriers and believe there needs to be a big cultural shift for anything to change."

The experts had more to say, demanding that Sweden give more free stuff and economic benefits to asylum seekers who've moved there. "Participating in winter sports can be very expensive," the video explains, "While some countries like Sweden offer programs to young children that give them access to free ski equipment and the slopes, experts also believe that more needs to be done by winter sports to improve accessibility, specifically for immigrants and underserved communities." 

What a humiliating post for the Associated Press. 

To start, despite countries with success in the Winter Olympics welcoming asylum seekers, demographically, they are still overwhelmingly white. Norway is roughly 85-90% white, Germany is 85-88%, Austria is 88-92%, Finland is 94-96%, and Sweden is 80-82%. It makes sense that their Olympic rosters are overwhelmingly white, because they are overwhelmingly white. 

Notice too, that these complaints and suggestions and demands are never brought up around the Summer Olympics. Like, for example, demanding that the US Olympic basketball team do a better job of reflecting the racial make-up of the United States. Or arguing that Jamaica and Kenya need to increase the number of white representatives on their historically successful running teams. Nor do they criticize countries like Japan and China for having rosters with effectively zero racial diversity. 

This is sports. It's the ultimate meritocracy. The most talented athletes win out and get their spots. That's what people love about the Olympics. It's a chance to see the best of the best compete, regardless of their backgrounds or their ethnic or racial makeup. The Winter Olympics are heavily dominated by countries where, what do you know, they get a lot of snow. Seems easy enough to put together, so maybe someone can let the Associated Press know.