(TibetanReview.net, Jan27’22) – Three Tibetans from Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have qualified to compete in the Feb 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and China is already using them for propaganda purposes, stressing their ‘Chinese-ness’. “I am very excited to be qualified to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics,” the official chinadaily.com.cn Jan 25 quoted 18-year-old skier Yangjin Lhamo as saying. “I will prepare well, and I will try my best in the competition to win glory for my country.”
The report cited the region’s sports bureau as saying that to date, three athletes from the region had qualified in the Olympics in ice and snow sports.
It noted that during the 2021-22 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup held on Jan 9 in Russia, Yangjin Lhamo had scored in Tier 17, the best performance of a “Chinese” athlete in this snowboard event.
The report said Yangjin Lhamo, from Chamdo City, had majored in soccer in the region’s school of sports techniques. But after 2018 she was selected as a snowboard cross athlete.
Another Tibetan from the region, Ciren Zhandui, also 18, will compete in cross-country skiing, reported Reuters Jan 26, citing China’s official Xinhua news agency.
The reports did not mention the name of the third Tibetan athlete who qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Games will also include five competitors from Xinjiang region, another Chinese occupied territory, with the media there saying they included two ethnic Kazakhs, one Uyghur, one Kyrgyz and one from China’s so-called Han majority, according to the Reuters report.