Belarusian Olympic Athlete Granted Polish Visa after Refusing Flight to Minsk

A Belarusian athlete, who refused to board a flight home from the Tokyo Olympic Games, has been granted asylum by Poland. 

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a 24-year-old sprinter, was reportedly ordered to return home by Belarusian sporting officials acting on behalf of the Lukashenko regime after she criticised the nation’s Olympic coaches who had abruptly placed her in the women’s 4x400m relay on Thursday. 

“It turns out our great bosses as always decided everything for us,” Tsimanouskaya wrote on Instagram. “They decided to do everything behind my back, despite the fact that I tried to find out this information but received only an ignore. Believe me, even though I have never run 400m, I would be ready to support the team and the girls and go on the same track with them, BUT, I believe that higher people should have respect for us as athletes and sometimes ask for our opinion!”

According to Belarusian media opposing the Lukashenko regime, Tsimanouskaya was ordered to fly home following the Instagram post, with an official telling the athlete that she was “caught in a spider web.” 

“We’ve received an order: you’re to fly home today. If you want to continue competing for the Belarusian Republic, then listen to what you’re advised to do: come, go home to your parents, or wherever you like. And let this situation slide. Otherwise the more you twitch ...  You know, when a fly is caught in a spider web, the more it writhes, the more it gets stuck. That’s how life is organised … you did a stupid thing.”

Later, in a video distributed by the exiled Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), Tsimanouskaya said she was “under pressure” and was going to be taken from Japan “without consent” before asking the International Olympic Committee to intervene. The athlete was then offered a humanitarian visa from Poland, which already houses many critics of the neighbouring Lukashenko regime. 

In response to the revelations, Germany on Monday urged Belarus to abide by the basic rights and freedoms of its citizens and called on the Lukashenko regime to “respect basic democratic rights, including freedom of the media, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.” Meanwhile, in a statement on its Facebook page, the Belarus Olympic Committee said Tsimanouskaya was removed from the Games because of her "emotional and psychological state.”

“According to doctors, due to the emotional and psychological state of the Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, the coaching staff of the national athletics team decided to stop the performance of the athlete at the XXXII Olympics. Consequently, the athlete's application for participation in qualifying races at 200m and in the 4x400m relay was recalled.”

In May, the government of Belarus was lambasted after authorities ordered the interception and grounding of a commercial Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania. The grounding, initiated under the guise of a “bomb threat,” culminated in the arrest of the opposition journalist in exile, Roman Protasevich, who then appeared in Belarussian state media amid rumours of torture to make a series of “confessions.”