Published February 6, 2026
And knowing when the game is over
The locals here had another amazing athletic run this month, this time at the EHF European Men’s Handball Championships, making the semi-finals. Usually, I would not describe this nation as sports-crazed. There aren’t massive crowds outside Laugardalshöll for handball. Despite launching the careers of more than a few football players internationally, you can grab a ticket and attend a local football match without spending or planning. However, when there’s a big run, as the football team had at the Euro in 2016, and as the handball team had this year, it is a joy.
I personally gathered with a few other foreigners and just took it all in, without even understanding the rules. There are few better places to watch a sporting event than Iceland.
As it happens, I spent a large amount of time this month as a spectator at sporting competitions. Our city just hosted a remarkable event, the Reykjavík International Games, where I sat at our home pool next to a swim team from Nuuk. This small international event highlighted what is great about sport, and what is no longer possible in other areas: respect, international cooperation, and fair play.
As noted by our publisher, there were two speeches at Davos that dominated local discussion. One speech cited Iceland four times. That speech, by President Donald Trump, resulted in an honest, well-meaning Japanese journalist contacting our office (we cover Icelandic politics in English, so international press call us and keep us on our toes) to ask if the country felt threatened.
For our purposes, as an Iceland-focused magazine, we should discuss the Trump speech at length, as Iceland was reprimanded by the leader of the largest military on Earth. However, the words spoken by Trump were clearly accidental.
For this reason, Donald Trump’s confusion at Davos did not specifically threaten Iceland. It was also not the speech we quoted in our office debates. For three days, we were astounded by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 16-minute speech. And Trump’s addled, vitriolic ramble only served as a signpost, pointing straight up — Canada is clearly now the leader of the free world.
When Carney made his speech, it appeared he was playing chess, where Trump was playing checkers. When Trump spoke 24 hours later, it appeared Trump was playing tic-tac-toe, poorly, where Carney was playing chess.
If the U.S. was clearly losing the game of international politics, the public execution of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti ended the game aspect. It’s one thing to play tic-tac-toe with an angry toddler, but when the toddler switches to murder, the engagement should end. We have noted before that public opinion was changing. The one, two, three, of Mark Carney’s speech, to Trump’s ramble, to the Pretti execution took the U.S. from outdated, to a source of disgust, to pariah.
Judging by public discussion here, though, Iceland is doing fine. We did great at handball. The days are getting longer. Politically, Mark Carney, who demonstrated a strong working relationship with Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir this autumn at the Global Progress Action Summit, is the leader of the free world.
