Swedish speedskater Nils van der Poel gave one of the two gold medals he won in Beijing to Chinese-Swedish dissident Gui Minhai to protest China’s human rights abuses, Amnesty International said on Friday.
Van der Poel, who has been fiercely critical of the decision to award Beijing the Winter Olympics, on Thursday gave his 10,000m gold medal to Angela Gui, the daughter of bookseller Gui Minhai, who is serving 10 years in prison in China on charges of illegally providing intelligence abroad.
“I am not the voice of all Olympians, but me and my friends dedicated our lives to strive for excellence within sports, and the Chinese government chose to use our dreams as a political weapon to legitimize their regime,” Van der Poel said in a statement published by Amnesty International.
Photo: AFP / handout / Amnesty International
“I wish for the human rights issues in China to improve and for Gui Minhai to be set free,” he added. “It’s a lot to ask, but it is the only reasonable thing to ask.”
Angela Gui, who lives in Britain, accepted the medal five days after the end of the Games.
“He came to see me in Cambridge yesterday, where I accepted his medal on my father’s behalf. I think he’d feel beyond honored if he knew,” she wrote on Twitter.
Van der Poel was scathing in his criticism of Beijing upon his return to Sweden from the Games.
The Olympics “are a fantastic sporting event where the world and nations meet,” he told daily Aftonbladet on Feb. 13.
However, hosting the Games “is what Hitler did before he invaded Poland, and that’s what Russia did before it invaded Ukraine,” he said, referring to the 2014 Sochi Games held just before Russia invaded Crimea.
“I think it’s extremely irresponsible to give the Games to a country that so clearly violates human rights like China’s regime does,” he added.
Gui is one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers who disappeared in late 2015 after publishing books critical of the Chinese government.
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