A Belarusian sprinter has left Tokyo en route to Europe after resisting an attempt by her Olympic team’s officials to send her home to Belarus, where she said she could be in danger from authorities who have relentlessly cracked down on dissent.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya boarded a plane at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport that left the gate for Vienna, but she was expected to travel on to Poland.
Before leaving Japan, she said she hoped she could continue her career but that safety was her immediate priority.
Several countries offered to help after the 24-year-old sought refuge in the European Union, and Poland has granted her a humanitarian visa.
Vadim Krivosheyev, an activist with the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, said Tsimanouskaya took the flight to Austria on the advice of Polish authorities.
“The decision to change the route and fly to Vienna was made by the Polish side for security reasons,” he told The Associated Press.
After landing in Vienna, Tsimanouskaya was expected to head to to Warsaw later on Wednesday, according to Mr Krivosheyev.
Tsimanouskaya’s experience at the Tokyo Games became an international issue after she accused Belarusian team officials of hustling her to the airport several days ago and trying to put her on a plane to Belarus because she had criticised the team’s management on social media.
The team officials made it clear she would face reprisals back home, she said.
The officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment”, Tsimanouskaya told the Associated Press in a video interview from Tokyo on Tuesday.
“There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”
She added that she believed she would be kicked off Belarus’s national team.
“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,” Tsimanouskaya said. “For now, the only thing that concerns me is my safety.”
Tsimanouskaya’s criticism of officials set off a massive backlash in state-run media in Belarus. The runner said on Instagram that she was put in the 4×400-metre relay even though she has never raced in the event. She was then barred from competing in the 200 metres.
The sprinter called on international sports authorities “to investigate the situation, who gave the order, who actually took the decision that I can’t compete any more”. She suggested possible sanctions against the head coach.
In the AP interview, Tsimanouskaya also expressed worry for her parents, who remain in Belarus. Her husband, Arseni Zdanevich, told AP he decided to leave the country when Tsimanouskaya told him she was not coming back.
Belarus was rocked by months of protests after President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in an August 2020 election that the opposition and the West saw as rigged.
Authorities responded to demonstrations with a sweeping crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.
In a show of determination to stifle dissent at any cost, they diverted a passenger plane that was flying from Greece to Lithuania in May and ordered it to land in the Belarusian capital where they arrested an opposition journalist who was on board.
The authoritarian Belarusian president, who led the Belarus National Olympic Committee for almost a quarter of a century before handing over the job to his older son in February, has shown a keen interest in sport, seeing it as a key element of national prestige.
Mr Lukashenko and his son were banned from the Tokyo Games by the International Olympic Committee, which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced intimidation during the crackdown on anti-government protests over the past year.
