Gold medalist skater on Beijing Olympics boycott calls: Team USA should go, focus on 'purity of sport'

Olympic gold medalist and retired speed skating athlete Apolo Ohno told "Varney & Co." Wednesday the United States should compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics next year in response to growing calls to skip it.

U.S. officials like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley have spoken publicly against the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics, citing human rights abuses by China’s government.

Ohno argued that regardless of boycott efforts and political tension, Team USA should still compete in the games and focus on the "purity of sport."

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"I believe that America as a team should go and represent the absolute best that we can," Ohno said. "We try to win in every single circumstance and situation."

"My passion for sport to go beyond the borders and the politicized beliefs is something that I hold dearly to my heart," Ohno added, "and I just want to see the purity of sport again. We want to see and celebrate and cheer for our country men and women who go and compete, regardless of where the Olympic Games are being held."

The boycott aims to move the Winter Olympics to another host city, and comes at the heels of the Biden administration’s announcement of an international investigation into the origins of coronavirus, calling on China to provide additional data and information.

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Ohno is the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics and won gold medals in 2002 and 2006.

Ohno also talked to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney about cryptocurrency and the athlete’s recent partnership with Personal Capital to help people take control of their finances by offering free investment tools.

"I'm always constantly inspired and motivated by … the ideas around how we talk about money, how we talk about transference of value, how we talk about new asset classes," Ohno said. "And I think it's easy for us to all get distracted at times with whatever the new hype is and whatever that cycle may bring."

Ohno said he owns crypto and likes to keep his portfolio "diversified" in terms of venture investment and entrepreneurship.

"I believe in a thesis moving forward that this is going to be something that is going to continuously grow," he said.

But the professional athlete recognizes that cryptocurrency is relatively new to the public, and there’s still lots to learn about it.

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"I think this is something that we're still understanding as this unfolds," Ohno said. "It's still really challenging for a lot of people to understand these different protocol layers and the technology behind it… And I think that we are really just at the beginning stages of what this is going to look like over the next decade."