Olympics

2022 Winter Olympics test event held at National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing

BEIJING — The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics’ showpiece test event series took to the national speed skating oval for the first time Wednesday, amid growing calls for a boycott of next year’s games over China’s human rights record.

On the seventh of the scheduled 10 days of competition in the test event series, some of the country’s top long-track speed skaters went head-to-head inside the oval, which was specially built for next February’s games.

The test event series features a mixture of professional, amateur and junior athletes taking part in seven different events.

The events are being held across five different venues in China’s capital, including the “Ice Cube” arena, which is a converted part of the national aquatics center used in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The U.S. said it aimed to discuss a unified approach with its allies toward participation in the Beijing Olympics.

The White House said back in February that it had not made a final decision on whether the U.S. would take part and would look for guidance from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had no comment.

Human rights groups have urged the IOC to take move the Olympics out of China because of its treatment of Uighur Muslims and other human rights concerns.