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Tokyo 2020: Belarusian athlete who refused to fly home granted Polish visa

Krystsina Timanovskaya and her husband are both safe

Krystsina-Tsimanouskay-polish-embassy-tokyo-reuters Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskay enters the Polish embassy in Tokyo, Japan, August 2, 2021 | REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

 A Belarusian athlete who feared returning to Belarus after criticising the country’s Olympic organising committee has been granted a Polish visa after she refused to fly back from Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

After she made her stand at the Tokyo airport on Sunday, Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, spent the night at a hotel in the city under the supervision of Japanese police officials. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said she was in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo and that Poland would do “whatever is necessary to help her continue her sporting career”. She was then spotted entering the Polish embassy in Tokyo. 

Przydacz wrote on Twitter that Tsimanouskaya has been "offered a humanitarian visa and is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses."

Her husband has, meanwhile has fled to Ukraine’s capital of Kiev.

The athlete, a sprinter, had complained that she had been entered into the 4x400m relay after members of the national team were found ineligible to compete due to not having undergone a sufficient amount of doping tests.

After reportedly criticising her country’s Olympic committee, she was dropped from the Belarusian national team and asked to return home. “There is pressure against me. They are trying to get me out of the country without my permission. I am asking the IOC to get involved,” she had posted on a Telegram channel of a handle that represents Belarusian athletes that have been persecuted by the country’s authoritarian government.

The Belarusian Olympic Committee had removed her from the team citing her “emotional, psychological state”. She had been due to compete in the women’s 200 metres race on Monday, as well as the 4x400 metres relay on Thursday.

Foreign ministry officials from Czechia have also expressed support for her situation. The growing animosity of democracies in Europe to Belarus reflects the situation that has taken hold of the former Soviet republic since last year’s protests against the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, with critics saying he rigged the vote.

Mass protests against the election results saw thousands imprisoned. Several athletes who took political stances were also either jailed or removed from their positions.

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