US Olympian Slams Call for China Winter Games Boycott

Clare Egan is an American athlete who qualified for the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team. She competes in the biathalon, a sport that combines the winter survival skills of cross-country skiing with target shooting.

As chair of the International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) athletes’ committee, Egan opposes calls for an international boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. She believes Team USA athletes should be allowed to participate in the games so China’s alleged record of genocide and human rights abuses of its Uyghur citizens, a Muslim minority, will be spotlighted during the events scheduled for February 4-20. “It's really important for everyone involved in the Olympics to not overlook [the alleged abuses] and not let the grandeur of the Olympics cover that up,” Egan told VOA Mandarin this month in a Skype interview, calling the games an opportunity to help anyone suffering human rights violations. “It can’t be on the athlete to be forced to not do your job and not participate in the Olympics in order for your country to be able to promote a particular policy,” she said. “But I do think it is the responsibility of the [International Olympic Committee] to put pressure on host countries to comply with the Olympic charter, and human rights are front and center in the Olympic charter.”