Speaking at the launch of the European rights holders' coverage, Georgiou directly addressed the concerns which have dominated the build-up to the Games.

"There is no doubt it [human rights in China] is a massively important issue," he said.

"Discovery is really focused on social issues and we’ve made a big commitment to diversity and inclusion within our own organisation, it’s not a topic that we want to shy away from, we’re going to address it.

"But we’re also a sports broadcaster and we will also be focused on athlete performances and what’s going on on the big stage and doing the best we can to show those stories.

"Hopefully the Olympics should shine a light on that and bring all the Olympics back to a really interesting story for the consumer."

Critics have argued that the host nation's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang amounts to genocide.

China's record in Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the welfare of tennis player Peng Shuai, have also come under scrutiny in the build-up to Beijing 2022.

In Xinjiang, China has faced accusations of using forced Uyghur labour, operating a mass surveillance programme, detaining more than one million people in internment camps, carrying out forced sterilisations and intentionally destroying Uyghur heritage in the region.

Beijing has consistently denied the charges laid against it, and claims the camps are training centres designed to stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism.

European nations have been divided over the United States-led diplomatic boycott of the Games.

Georgiou later expanded at a press briefing that Discovery would ensure that its coverage of Beijing 2022 ties in with its values as a broadcaster, but reiterated that human rights concerns would primarily be covered through the lens of the athletes.

"I think the starting point for us as Discovery is what drives us, what are our brand values as a business, and certainly we internally spend quite a bit of time focusing on social justice issues, and our sports business in particular I would say very much more than ever before has focused on diversity, equity and inclusion as part of our narrative," he commented.

"We've launched our revised mission last year which is to 'unlock the power of sport' and that embraces a key brand principle which is united and diversity and that's something that you will see more and more.

"We launched last year for example content pre-Olympics leading into the Tokyo Games called trailblazers, which was showcasing athletes likes Arthur Ashe, Greg Louganis and Serena Williams and others who come from a much more diverse background, who used sport as a platform to inspire change and inclusion and commitment to change, and we do see sport as a platform where you can use that celebrity, that position, to inspire change.

"As we go into the Olympics, certainly as the stories develop during the Games especially on eurosport.com which is a broader editorial service, we'll be telling the fullness of those stories and how the athletes in particular react to those stories.

"It's the athletes themselves, because we're a sports broadcaster, we're not a news service, so I think we are conscious of not straying into the news, but by the same token when athletes start to address these topics, when these topics become relevant to the sport, we'll be covering it because they're a natural part of the narrative of the Olympics and completely within our gift to talk about."

Beijing 2022 official Yang Shu recently warned that athletes could face punishment including losing their accreditation if their comments on human rights issues fall "against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations".

Discovery's senior vice-president for content and production Scott Young claimed that he had no issues that its coverage would be hampered.

"I've got no concerns, we've actually had no issue of anyone trying to place any restrictions in terms of what we're going to cover in relation to the Games," Young said.

"If it's part of the narrative, if it's part of the athletes' narrative, if it's part of the sporting narrative, then absolutely it's something that we will cover as part of our coverage of the Games."

The Opening Ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is due to be held on February 4, with the mixed doubles curling tournament set to start two days earlier.