The former top leader during the ex-US President Donald Trump-led administration said the previous administration had tried in its final months to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the Winter Games.

“I hope that our athletes get a chance to participate in the Olympics,” Pompeo told radio host Hugh Hewitt as quoted by AFP.

“They very much deserve that, but in the end, we cannot allow American athletes to travel to Beijing and reward the Chinese Communist Party all the while that they [are] doing all of the nasty activity that they’re engaged in," he said.

“The Olympics are an expression of freedom and athletic talent and to hold them in Beijing is completely inappropriate,” he said.