A Uyghur Skier Became the Face of China's Winter Olympics. The Next Day, She Vanished From the Spot

[question everything]

A Uyghur Skier Became the Face of China’s Winter Olympics. The Next Day, She Vanished From the Spotlight.

ZHANGJIAKOU, China—She was the face of Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony: a young Uyghur athlete from Xinjiang, the center of human-rights allegations dividing China and the West, carrying the Olympic flame for the host nation. By Saturday, the 20-year-old cross-country skier, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, had given the slip to an eager global press, her lackluster finish in her Olympic debut barely mentioned in the Chinese media. The catapulting of Ms. Yilamujiang into the global spotlight, followed by a low-key retreat, marked a remarkable 24-hour whirlwind for the hitherto-unknown athlete.

On Friday night, as Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin watched from the VIP booth at the Beijing National Stadium, Ms. Yilamujiang was the surprising—and immediately contentious—choice for what acclaimed Chinese film director and opening ceremony maestro Zhang Yimou had promised would be “a bold and unprecedented way of lighting the Olympic flame.” In the end, it was less about how Ms. Yilamujiang carried the flame—hand in hand with Zhao Jiawen, a Chinese athlete in the Nordic combined—as it was about her identity. Ms. Yilamujiang is a Uyghur, a member of the Turkic minority group native to China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang that has become the main focus of allegations in the U.S. and the West about Chinese human rights violations.

The decision to choose Ms. Yilamujiang, rather than a more accomplished or widely known athlete, and to pair her with a member of China’s Han majority, was interpreted as Mr. Xi’s act of defiance against the global pressure campaign and decried as “offensive” by overseas Uyghur human rights groups. Ms. Yilamujiang’s selection for such a prestigious task was notable for another reason: She was set to make her Olympic sporting debut 18 hours after her star turn. It didn’t go particularly well. By the first checkpoint of Saturday’s race, Ms. Yilamujiang had fallen behind more than half of the field of 65 competitors, eventually finishing 42 places behind the eventual gold medalist, Norway’s Therese Johaug.

Afterward, Ms. Yilamujiang and the three other Chinese athletes competing in the event slipped away, leaving more than a dozen Chinese and foreign journalists waiting for more than an hour in frigid temperatures. Ms. Yilamujiang’s escape, if that’s what it was, appeared to be in contravention of International Olympic Committee rules that require all athletes to pass through a “mixed zone” where they can—but aren’t obliged to—answer journalists’ questions.

More..

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-uyghur-skier-became-the-face-of-chinas-winter-olympics-the-next-day-she-vanished-from-the-spotlight-11644157693 (subscription)

[hatrack]

1. Wolfgang Furstner 2.0

Wolfgang Fürstner (4 April 1896 – 19 August 1936) was a German Wehrmacht captain who was appointed as commander and later vice-commander of Berlin's Olympic village during the 1936 Summer Olympics.

EDIT

After being tasked with building and organising the Olympic village, Fürstner was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Werner Freiherr von und zu Gilsa in June 1936. Fürstner was demoted to local vice-commander. Officially, the demotion was because "Fürstner did not act with the necessary energy" since 370,000 visitors had poured through from the opening on 1 May to 15 June 1936 and caused damage. The explanation was a pretext to disparage Fürstner because of his background. Fürstner, along with fencer Helene Mayer and Ice hockey star Rudi Ball, was one of the few people with Jewish ancestry connected with the 1936 Olympics.[2] The non-Jewish Werner von Gilsa was given Fürstner's position and promoted to General der Infanterie. Gilsa became the last Wehrmacht commandant of Dresden and committed suicide on 8 May 1945.
Death and cover-up

Fürstner committed suicide with a pistol shot on 19 August 1936, three days after the end of the games. He had been awarded the Olympic Medal First Class and had attended a banquet for his successor, Gilsa, but Fürstner, a career officer, had learned that according to the Nuremberg Laws, he was classified as a Jew and was to be dismissed from the Wehrmacht.[3] (His grandfather Dr. Karl Fürstner was a Jewish convert to Christianity.)

To cover up Fürstner's suicide and to protect the international reputation of Germany, the Nazis said that Fürstner had died from a car accident.[4]

However, word of the cover up leaked out to foreign journalists, who reported that he had shot himself. For example, The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, reported he had been found dead with a gun by his side.[5]

He was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof, section F, alongside the honoured dead of Germany"s wars. The grave was listed in the Official Berlin Invalidenfriedhof Guidebook (Der Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin – Ein Ehrenhain preußisch-deutscher Geschichte), which appeared between 1936 and 1940 in several editions.

EDIT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_F%C3%BCrstner

[question everything]

2. I hope not

[Klaralven]

3. Uyghur skier, 20, who became the face of China's Winter Olympics and carried the Olympic torch 'disa

Uyghur skier, 20, who became the face of China's Winter Olympics and carried the Olympic torch 'disappears' after finishing 43rd in her Nordic combined debut

An Uyghur athlete who became the face of China's Winter Games after lighting the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony has 'disappeared' from the spotlight.

Dinigeer Yilamujiang, 20, from the Altay Prefecture in Northern Xinjiang, finished 43rd in her cross-country skiathon Olympic debut on Saturday and has since vanished from the limelight.

She quietly slipped away after the event alongside three other Chinese athletes through a 'mixed zone', which allows athletes to pass through without having to answer questions from the media.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10482873/Uyghur-skier-20-disappears-finishing-43rd-Nordic-combined-debut.html

[Raine]

4. She was used and discarded

it was obvious that was the way it was going to be.

[AngryOldDem]

5. Disgusting.

But let’s all break into a chorus of “Imagine.”

Using people as political props…