08/02/2021 19:12
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/02/2021 19:12
Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanóuskaya received a humanitarian visa from Poland on Monday.
The sprinter was threatened with being forcibly repatriated to her country, after criticizing the sports authorities at the Tokyo Olympics.
The case comes after almost a year of fierce repression of any protest in Belarus, a former Soviet republic situated between Russia and the European Union and ruled with an iron fist since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko.
Tsimanóuskaya fears she will be jailed if she returns to her country, which in the last year has seen thousands of arrests and forced exiles of opponents, as well as the elimination of many independent media.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya competing in the Tokyo Olympics (AP Photo / Petr David Josek)
"
I am asking the International Olympic Committee for help. They pressured me and are trying to force me out of the country without my consent. I asked the IOC to intervene,
" Tsimanouskaya said in a video on Telegram.
Krystsina Tsimanóuskaya, 24, explained on Sunday that she was forced to end her participation in the Games on the orders of her team's coach.
A few days earlier, she
had harshly criticized the Belarusian Athletics Federation for forcing her to participate in the 4x400 meter relay
, when she was originally supposed to run the 100 and 200 meters.
According to her, the change is due to the fact that two other athletes had not passed a sufficient number of doping controls.
The press waiting for Krystsina Tsimanouskaya outside the police offices at Haneda Airport.REUTERS / Issei Kato
The athlete was escorted to the airport by officials of the Belarusian National Olympic Committee where she had to spend the night in a hotel before returning to her country.
But from the hotel, during the night, she contacted those responsible for the organization committee of the Games to help her not to take the plane to Belarus.
The athlete rejected the forced return because she says she is afraid of ending up in jail
and finally went to the Polish embassy in Tokyo, and the Polish government confirmed that she had been granted a humanitarian visa.
"Poland will do whatever it takes to help her continue her sports career," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz, whose country hosts many Belarusian dissidents, wrote on Twitter.
Kryscina Tsimanouskaya a Belarusian athlet is already in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo.
She has received a humanitarian Visa.
Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career.
🇵🇱 always stands for Solidarity.
- Marcin Przydacz (@marcin_przydacz) August 2, 2021
Belarusian opposition exile Svetlana Tijanóvskaya accused her country's Olympic officials of trying to kidnap the athlete
.
"Not a single Belarusian who has crossed the country's borders is safe, because they could try to kidnap him," he wrote on Telegram on Sunday, calling for stronger international sanctions against Minsk.
The incident comes as the Lukashenko regime, whose son Viktor heads the National Olympic Committee, continues its relentless crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
As for Belarusian state television, it criticized the athlete saying that she had "turned her appearance in Tokyo into a great scandal."
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