Uyghur cross-country skier Dilnigar Ilhamjan, also spelled as Dinigeer Yilamujiang, was one of the surprise final torchbearers at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony on Feb. 4. The use of the 20-year-old ethnic minority from Xinjiang, where China is accused of widespread rights violations amounting to genocide, to light the Olympic cauldron was decried by the Uyghur exile community as a crude attempt to "sportwash" the crisis. A day after being elevated from obscurity to become the face of the opening ceremony, Dilnigar finished 43rd out of 65 in her skiathlon event and avoided international media.
