INTERNATIONAL: German athletes participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics received their official Games uniforms on Thursday.

Among them was ski jumper Markus Eisenbichler, who is counting on the power of the German winter athletes:

"I think we have a very very good team and a strong team. Of course anything can always happen, but I am not personally stressed by it, in the end it is a competition and we will give our best performance and of course there are possibilities of medals. But yes, it just comes to what happens on the day and I hope that we all prepared well enough for it."

Ice-hockey player Moritz Mueller prefers not to get involved in the politics but to focus on the sporting aspect:

"I mean these discussions never actually take place with the athletes themselves, but always around and about and it is usually not about the interests of the athletes, rather mostly about the interests of some third parties who want to draw an advantage for themselves from the fact that the Games might be cancelled, because they themselves may have something to gain from it. For me personally, for me, the Olympic Games are the greatest thing you can experience as an athlete. And that's why I want them to take place, I want us to be there."

The USA had called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the Winter Olympics in February 2022 because of China's disregard for human rights. Among other things, the U.S. accuses China of genocide against the Uighur Muslim minority.

The U.S. declared that it would not send diplomatic representatives to Beijing. China rejected the allegations of human rights violations and announced "resolute countermeasures". Australia, Great Britain and Canada joined the US boycott. Japan will also not send a government delegation to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced that they would stay away from the Winter Games. However, they did not justify their decision with a diplomatic boycott.

The rapid spread of the highly contagious corona variant Omicron is putting China's plans for hosting the Winter Olympics to a severe test.

More than 2,000 athletes will travel to China for the Games, which begin on 4 February, and a large proportion of the 25,000 people accompanying them will also come from abroad.