Swedish Olympic champion gives medal to man held in China

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish speedskater who won double Olympic gold earlier this month in Beijing, has given one of his medals to a Swedish publisher detained in China. The Swedish branch of Amnesty International said Friday that Nils van der Poel gave the medal to the daughter of Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swede who co-owned a Hong Kong store which sold gossipy books about Chinese leaders. Gui went missing in 2015 from his seaside home in Thailand and turned up months later in China. He was convicted in 2020 of “illegally providing intelligence overseas” and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Chinese authorities said he had admitted his crime. Human rights groups have repeatedly accused China of extracting forced confessions.