Belarus Olympian seeks asylum in Poland after she criticized the country’s sports officials
Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to get on a flight from Tokyo on Sunday after being taken to the airport against her wishes by her team following her complaints about national coaches at the Olympic Games.
She was removed after she criticized sports officials, according to an NGO that supports athletes in conflict with Belarus’ authoritarian regime.
The 24-year-old athlete had objected publicly to being entered into the women’s 400m relay at the Games by Belarus’ athletics federation without prior notice. She said she had never raced in the event before.
The International Olympic Committee said it had spoken to Tsimanouskaya and that she was being accompanied by a staff member of Tokyo 2020 at the airport.
“She has told us she feels safe,” the IOC said in a tweet.
Tsimanouskaya said coaching staff had come to her room on Sunday and told her to pack. She said she was taken to Haneda airport by representatives of the Belarusian Olympic team. But she refused to board the flight and sought protection from the Japanese police instead, telling Reuters in a message over Telegram: “I will not return to Belarus.”
The Belarusian Olympic Committee said coaches had decided to withdraw Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her “emotional, psychological state”.
Earlier, a Reuters photographer saw the athlete standing next to police at the airport. “I think I am safe,” Tsimanouskaya said. “I am with the police.”
In a video published earlier on Telegram by the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, Tsimanouskaya had asked the IOC to get involved in her case. A source at the foundation said Tsimanouskaya planned to request asylum in Germany or Austria on Monday.
Tsimanouskaya ran in the women’s 100m heats on Friday and was scheduled to run in the 200m heats on Monday, along with the 4x400m relay on Thursday. She said she had been removed from the team due “to the fact that I spoke on my Instagram about the negligence of our coaches”.
Tsimanouskaya had complained on Instagram that she was entered in the 4x400m relay after some members of the team were found to be ineligible to compete because they had not undergone a sufficient amount of doping tests.
“Some of our girls did not fly here to compete in the 4x400m relay because they didn’t have enough doping tests,” Tsimanouskaya told Reuters from the airport.
“And the coach added me to the relay without my knowledge. I spoke about this publicly. The head coach came over to me and said there had been an order from above to remove me.”
Exiled Belarusian Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged the IOC to take up the athlete’s case.
“She has a right to international protection & to continue participation in the @Olympics,” Tsikhanouskaya tweeted. “It is also crucial to investigate Belarus’ NOC violations of athletes’ rights.”
Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has applied for a humanitarian visa and is planning to leave for Poland in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, said.
Another deputy foreign minister, Pawel Jablonski, said later that the visa had been issued.
