Kelly Osborne went to the Olympics, but he didn’t go to compete. The challenge that Osborne, 39, took on was of a political, rather than a physical, nature.

On Friday, the Oklahoma City resident helped a protester rappel down an Olympic billboard and hang a “Free Tibet” banner from the sign in Beijing. He was promptly arrested and deported.

Osborne, along with an Australian-Canadian, a Briton and two other Americans, was detained outside the China Central Television (CCTV) building, where he helped the group attempt to hang the banner, according to a press release issued by Students for a Free Tibet (SFT).

According to the SFT Web site, more than 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of China’s occupation in Tibet, and today, Tibetans are living under Communist China rule without freedoms such as speech, assembly, press and religion.

Osborne, who has been associated with SFT for more than 12 years, said he traveled to Beijing to protest these human rights violations.

“Supporters of Tibet recognized when the games were awarded to China, the best thing we could do was use media exposure to get the truth out about what is going on in Tibet,” he said.

Even though he said the Chinese government is a brutal military regime that is inflicting cultural genocide on the Tibetan community, Osborne said he wasn’t afraid for himself while in custody.

“As Westerners, we knew with the worldwide media attention, we would be treated much differently than if we were native to the country,” he said. “If it were a Chinese protester or a Tibetan they wouldn’t simply be interrogated for a few hours and deported, they would have gone down the path of years of imprisonment, rape, torture, disappeared and never heard from again.”

Osborne said he was not mistreated by Chinese officials, and he was detained for only a short time before he and fellow demonstrators were deported.

“We were arrested at 6:30 that morning and we were on a flight out of there that same afternoon,” he said. “Their goal was to get us out of the country so we couldn’t get any more attention.”

Although SFT has more than 700 chapters in more than 30 countries worldwide, Osborne said the organization is not very active in the Sooner state.

“This has given us an opportunity to spread the message of the plight of the Tibetan people to a whole new audience here in Oklahoma,” he said.

Osborne and his wife, Michelle, are youth ministers at Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City.

“It’s good to be back with my family,” he said.

Though his family expressed some concern over his activities in Beijing, Osborne said they were very supportive.

“They know full well that there are opportunities here that Tibetans don’t have and never will have, if we don’t make some very small sacrifices to get the word out,” he said.