Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, day 3 live blog, schedule, results: US blasts China’s Opening Ceremony act

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The United States has criticised China’s choice of who carried the Olympic torch, calling it an effort by Beijing to “distract us”.

Day three of the Beijing Winter Olympics looks to be relatively quiet for the Australian team, with only one athlete in action.

Brendan Corey will take part in the men’s 1000m short track competition in the evening, looking to potentially replicate the legendary Steven Bradbury.

Australia had its most successful day in Winter Olympic history on Sunday, with Jakara Anthony winning a gold medal in the women’s freestyle moguls competition.

It was Australia’s sixth ever Winter Olympics gold medal and the first since Torah Bright and Lydia Lassila in 2010.

US criticises China’s choice of Olympic torchbearer

The United States has criticised China’s choice of an ethnic Uyghur to carry the Olympic torch, calling it an effort by Beijing to “distract us” from the mistreatment of the minority group.

The appearance of Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old cross-country skier, as the final torch bearer thrust her – and the Uyghur question – squarely onto the world stage.

“This is an effort by the Chinese to distract us from the real issue here at hand,” US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Sunday on CNN. “That Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations by the Chinese.”

“We know that a genocide has been committed there. We’ve called them out on it. The president has called them out on it.”

China’s ruling Communist Party has been accused of widespread human rights abuses against the mostly Muslim minority from the far-northwestern region of Xinjiang.

At least one million Uyghurs have been incarcerated in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, rights campaigners say, and Chinese authorities have been accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour in the area.

Beijing, which hopes to use the Winter Olympics to draw attention to China’s dynamic growth and increasingly prominent global role, has denied all allegations of abuse or genocide, and exhorted its critics to stop “politicising” the Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has played down the controversial pick of torchbearer.

Yilamujiang had “every right” to participate, said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

“We don’t discriminate against people on where they’re from, what their background is.”

The United States, Australia, Britain and Canada were among countries that did not send diplomatic representatives to the Winter Games because of rights concerns, especially over the Uyghurs.

Yilamujiang, whose smiling face was seen by millions around the world, was not considered one of China’s most accomplished athletes. She finished 43rd in the skiathlon race on Saturday.

Day 3 schedule, Aussies in action

From 10.44pm – short track speed skating, men’s 100m quarterfinal 2 (Brendan Corey)

From 11.20pm – short track speed skating, men’s 100m semi-finals

11.58pm – short track speed skating, men’s 100m final

*All times AEDT

Censors step in after Chinese star’s blunder

China appeared to censor an outpouring of social media vitriol against a naturalised US-born figure skater who took a tumble at the Winter Olympics and nearly cost the hosts dearly.

Nineteen-year-old Beverly Zhu, who was born and raised in the United States but now competes for China under the name Zhu Yi, came last in the women’s singles short program in the team event.

It was a nervous performance from Zhu, who fell early on and crashed into the wall after failing to land a jump. She missed another jump later in her routine and looked to be holding back tears as she awaited her score.

Zhu finished with the lowest score in the event as China fell from third to fifth and only narrowly squeezed through to the next round of the free program.

On China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, the hashtag #ZhuYiFellOver racked up over 230 million views before being deactivated, with searches late Sunday afternoon returning no results.

Another hashtag — #ZhuYiMessedUp — remained accessible, clocking over 80 million views.

“I guess because I missed the first jump I was just kind of frazzled and felt a lot of pressure on landing that last jump, and unfortunately I popped it,” said Zhu, who chose in 2018 to skate for China.

“I’m upset and a little embarrassed. I guess I felt a lot of pressure because I know everybody in China was pretty surprised with the selection for ladies’ singles and I just really wanted to show them what I was able to do but unfortunately I didn’t.”

– with AFP

Originally published as Beijing Winter Olympics, day 3 live blog: US blasts China’s Opening Ceremony act



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