“I really see myself as the guy holding the microphone in front of Angela,” Mr. van der Poel said in an interview before the ceremony. “I just hope that human rights get to stand in the center of this.”
From the time they were awarded to China, the 2022 Winter Olympics ignited controversy over the Communist Party’s suppression of dissent. Human rights groups called for a boycott, citing China’s repression, particularly of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, in the Xinjiang region.
During the Games, no athletes openly protested against China. Chinese officials had warned athletes that they could be punished for making comments deemed to be against the law, a threat that Mr. van der Poel said convinced him to abandon an idea to refuse to appear on the medal stand in protest. “I thought that would be a very cool picture,” he said.
Mr. van der Poel, 25, has a reputation as an occasional maverick with an arduous training routine and blunt opinions on rivals.