Warsaw (Poland), August 5
Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who feared for her security at house after criticizing her coaches on social media, flew into Warsaw on Wednesday evening on a humanitarian visa after leaving the Tokyo Olympics, a Polish diplomat confirmed.
Deputy Overseas Minister Marcin Przydacz stated the 24-year-old athlete had arrived within the Polish capital after flying in from Tokyo by way of Vienna, a route apparently chosen to confuse those that would endanger her security. In an announcement, the diplomat stated he “needed to thank all of the Polish consular & diplomatic employees concerned, who flawlessly deliberate and secured her protected journey.”
The aircraft that she was touring on from Vienna was directed to a separate airport constructing in Warsaw utilized by authorities officers. Police vans had been seen everywhere in the airport.
Passengers from the flight advised reporters that one younger girl was left on board as they exited the aircraft and had been placed on buses to the primary terminal.
Tsimanouskaya later was seen with a prime Belarusian dissident in Poland, Pavel Latushko, in a photograph taken simply after her arrival contained in the airport constructing.
“We’re glad that Kristina Timanovskaya managed to get to Warsaw safely!” Latushko stated on Twitter, including he hopes she is going to have the ability to return to a “New Belarus” and proceed her profession there.
In a dramatic weekend standoff on the Tokyo Video games, Tsimanouskaya stated Belarus staff officers tried to pressure her to fly house early after she criticised them. She urged the Worldwide Olympic Committee to look into the dispute and a few European nations stepped in to supply help.
It’s not clear what’s subsequent for the runner — both in her sporting life or her private one. Earlier than she left Japan, she stated she hoped to proceed her operating profession however that security was her speedy precedence. Her husband fled Belarus this week shortly after his spouse stated she wouldn’t be returning, and Poland has additionally provided him a visa.
“We’re very blissful that she is right here protected,” stated Magnus Brunner, a prime Austrian authorities official, after Tsimanouskaya’s aircraft arrived in Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. “However she is scared about her future and about her household.”
On the Vienna airport, the runner was protected by Austrian law enforcement officials, public broadcaster ORF reported, and stayed within the transit space. Tsimanouskaya flew first to Austria as a substitute of on to Poland on the recommendation of Polish authorities for safety causes, stated Vadim Krivosheyev of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Basis.
The drama started after Tsimanouskaya’s criticism of how officers had been managing her staff set off an enormous backlash in state-run media in Belarus, the place the federal government has relentlessly stifled any criticism.
The runner stated on Instagram that she was put within the 4×400 relay despite the fact that she has by no means raced within the occasion. She was then barred from competing within the 200 meters.
She accused staff officers of hustling her to the Tokyo airport however she refused to board a aircraft house and was protected by Japanese safety.
The officers “made it clear that, upon return house, I’d undoubtedly face some type of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya advised the AP in a videocall from Tokyo on Tuesday. “There have been additionally thinly disguised hints that extra would await me.”
The sprinter known as on worldwide sports activities authorities “to analyze the scenario, who gave the order, who truly took the choice that I can’t compete anymore.” She recommended doable sanctions towards the top coach.
Reached by telephone, Dzmitry Dauhalionak, the top of Belarus’ delegation on the Tokyo Olympics, declined to remark.
The standoff has drawn extra consideration to Belarus’ uncompromising authoritarian authorities.
When the nation was rocked by months of protests following a presidential election that the opposition and the West noticed as rigged, authorities responded by arresting some 35,000 individuals and beating 1000’s of demonstrators. In current months the federal government has orchestrated a robust crackdown on impartial media and opposition figures.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who led the Belarus Nationwide Olympic Committee for nearly 1 / 4 century earlier than handing over the job to his son in February, has a eager curiosity in sports activities, seeing it as a key ingredient of nationwide status.
And his authorities has proven it’s keen to go to excessive lengths to focus on its critics. In Might, Belarus authorities diverted a European passenger jet to the capital of Minsk, the place they arrested an opposition journalist on board.
Within the AP interview, Tsimanouskaya expressed concern for her mother and father, who stay in Belarus.
Her husband, Arseni Zdanevich, left for Ukraine shortly after the drama started. Poland has since issued him a humanitarian visa.
Amid Tsimanouskaya’s rift with staff officers, two different Belarusian athletes introduced their intention to remain overseas.
Heptathlete Yana Maksimava stated she and her husband, Andrei Krauchanka, who received silver within the decathlon on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, would stay in Germany.
“I’m not planning to return house after all of the occasions that occurred in Belarus,” Maksimava stated on Instagram, including that “you possibly can lose not simply your freedom but additionally your life” in her homeland.
Western leaders have condemned Tsimanouskaya’s therapy by Belarusian authorities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Belarusian officers’ try and pressure Tsimanouskaya to return to Belarus for exercising free speech as “one other act of transnational repression.”
“Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to primary rights, and can’t be tolerated,” Blinken stated on Twitter.
Whereas Tsimanouskaya stated she hoped to proceed her sporting profession, she may face prolonged procedures if she desires to compete beneath a unique flag.
Tomasz Majewski, vice chairman of the Polish Athletics Affiliation and twice an Olympic gold medalist within the shot put, voiced fears that Tsimanouskaya “will lose one of the best interval of her profession” if she modifies citizenship.
“These are sophisticated issues. We all know that there will probably be clear objections from the house staff, which is able to in all probability make it tough and even search the disqualification of the athlete,” he stated. — AP
