The Belarusian Olympic athlete who is seeking asylum in Poland revealed that she was warned she would face a “punishment” if she returned to her native country.
After criticizing national sporting authorities, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, said Belarus representatives forcibly tried to get her to return to her native country during the Olympic Games.
Team officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” she told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”
Over the weekend, Tsimanouskaya approached a Japanese police officer and asked for political asylum, and on Monday, she was seen entering the Polish Embassy in Tokyo after she refused a flight home.
“I would very much like to continue my sporting career because I’m just 24, and I had plans for two more Olympics at least,” she said, adding, “For now, the only thing that concerns me is my safety.”
Tsimanouskaya has been offered a humanitarian visa to Poland, according to Polish foreign ministry official Marcin Przydacz, who said that she “is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses.”
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The sprinter explained that the reason she feared going home was “the key phrase was that ‘we didn’t make the decision for you to go home, it was decided by other people, and we were merely ordered to make it happen.’”
Tsimanouskaya criticized the national sporting authorities for entering her into another race without her consent. She was set to compete in the women’s 200 meters but was barred from doing so and was put in the 4×400 relay, even though she had never raced in the event.
Her husband has left the country, though her parents remain in Belarus, which is led by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has run the country for 27 years.
