Winter Olympics: China 'not well suited' to host Games, says Team GB freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy

British freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy says China is «not well suited» to host the Winter Olympics because of its reported human rights abuses.

The International Olympic Committee has been criticised for awarding the Games to China because of the country's treatment of its ethnic minorities.

The World Uyghur Congress has described the event as «a genocide Olympics».

Kenworthy said the IOC «should not grant» the Games to countries with «appalling» human rights records.

«I think the IOC should take a stance against a lot of these atrocities and stand up for important issues, and by not granting those countries the right to host the Games they could create positive change in those places — maybe not even letting them compete,» the 30-year-old told BBC Sport's Laura Scott.

«I know the Olympics are so important to China and they are always so high up in the medal count, that I feel like by actually taking a stance against them in a real tangible way you could probably make some positive change.

»It's all about money, it seems like. I don't really think they're well suited to host the Games."

Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uighurs — a Muslim minority group living mostly in the Xinjiang province in north-west China — culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination and even forced sterilisation.

China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, insisting camps were not detention camps, but «vocational educational and training centres».

Kenworthy, who switched allegiance from the United States to Great Britain in 2019, said he plans to «speak up» for what he believes in and will use his «voice