China’s human rights record made Winter Olympics ‘irresponsible’, says Swedish athlete

A Swedish gold medallist has said it was “extremely irresponsible” to hold the Winter Olympics in China because of the government’s human rights record.

Nils van der Poel, a 25-year-old speedskater, made the comments after returning home from the Beijing event, where officials have been at pains to keep politics and protest out despite diplomatic boycotts.

Van der Poel told Sportbladet he had “a very nice experience behind the scenes”, but that the decision to give Beijing the Games was “terrible”.

“The Olympic Village was very nice, the Chinese people I met were absolutely amazing,” he said. “The Olympics is a lot, it’s a fantastic sporting event where you unite the world and nations meet. But so did Hitler before invading Poland, and so did Russia before invading Ukraine.

“I think it is extremely irresponsible to give it to a country that violates human rights as blatantly as the Chinese regime is doing.”

Governments including the US have accused China’s government of conducting a genocide in Xinjiang, through its long campaign of forced assimilation against ethnic minorities, including Muslim Uyghurs. An estimated 1 million people have been detained in mass detention and re-education centres, and the general population has been subjected to acts of religious and cultural suppression, alleged forced labour, and enforced birth control.

Several human rights and legal groups have said the actions amount to crimes against humanity. Beijing denies all accusations of human rights abuses, and says its policies are part of anti-terrorism efforts and poverty alleviation programmes.

Rights groups had called for widespread boycotts of the Winter Olympics by governments and sponsors. Several nations including the US, UK and