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COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The head of Denmark's Olympic
delegation said Friday that the uproar over the Prophet Muhammad
cartoons will not interfere with the nation's medal hopes -- even as
the Danish athletes were escorted by security guards at the opening
ceremony. "They do not allow this sad case to affect their
concentration," Jesper Frigast Larsen said by phone from Turin on
Friday. "It is not something that has affected their daily lives
down here." The small Scandinavian country has only five athletes at the
Olympics -- all of them members of the women's curling team. "They have self-confidence. They are in the best possible
shape, mentally too," said Bo Jensen, chairman of the curling club
where four of the athletes are members. Curling took off in Denmark after the country won bronze in
Nagano 1998 -- Denmark's first Winter Olympics medal. Danish curlers used to practiced on ice hockey rinks, but the
medal led to the construction of Denmark's first curling rink two
years later. Today, the Danish curling federation has grown to 1,000 members,
but remains the country's smallest sport association. International media interest for the five women has been huge
because of the recent focus on Denmark, and the team can count on a
strong following from home, too. "We will take off from work to watch them on television
starting on Monday when the competition begins," Larsen said.
"They know that we are here to support them." The Prophet Muhammad drawings were first published in a Danish
newspaper then reprinted in other European publications, sparking
outrage across the Islamic world against Denmark.
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