Swedish Olympic Star Gives Away Gold Medal to Protest Beijing's Abuses

[Celerity]

In a rare rebuke of Beijing, Nils van der Poel, a speedskater, handed one of his gold medals to the daughter of Gui Minhai, a book publisher imprisoned in China.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/asia/nils-van-der-poel-olympic-protest.html



The Swedish skating star Nils van der Poel jumped for joy on the podium when he received his gold medal for the men’s 10,000-meter speedskating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Years of grueling training had brought him the world record-breaking victory.

Even in his moment of glory, though, he had a secret plan: to use his victory to denounce the Chinese government’s ferocious clampdown on free speech, dissent and ethnic minorities.

Mr. van der Poel has now acted on that plan. On Thursday, he gave his gold medal to the daughter of Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish publisher of books critical of Beijing, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence in China. It was the boldest protest yet by an athlete who took part in the Beijing Games.

“I realize that Gui Minhai will not be set free because of this. I realize that the Chinese people will not stop suffering from oppression because of this. But I really, really believe in free speech,” Mr. van der Poel said in Cambridge, England, where he handed the medal to Angela Gui, Mr. Gui’s daughter, in a small, improvised ceremony.

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[dchill]

1. He seems to bring something to athletics...

...that Aaron Rodgers just doesn't.