Kristina Tymanovskaya: Belarusian Olympic sprinter enters Polish embassy after refusing to go home

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Reuters reported that Tymanovskaya was filmed entering the Polish embassy on Monday. Quoting a member of the local Belarusian community who is in contact with her, the agency said that she plans to seek asylum in Poland.

Late Sunday, the 24-year-old Olympian was flown out of Tokyo’s Haneda airport and “secured by police in a special shelter,” where she was said to be “safe for the time being,” according to Anatole Cutau, from Sports Solidarity Organization of Belarus. The institution representing athletes oppressed by the Belarusian authorities.

The International Olympic Committee said on Monday that Tymanovskaya had spent the night in an airport hotel and was in the hands of Japanese authorities. IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a daily news conference that the IOC had asked the Belarus National Olympic Committee to provide a full written report on the situation.

“We are talking to her again this morning to understand what the next steps could be and what she wants to pursue, and we will support her in that decision,” Adams said, adding that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is involved in her case.

Tymanovskaya was due to compete in the women’s 200m at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, but said representatives of the Belarus national team tried to forcibly repatriate her after national sports authorities criticized her for entering the 4x400m relay without her. Assent.

Kutau, who is in direct contact with Tymanovskaya, said team officials came to the Olympic Village on Sunday afternoon and asked her to “pack her things as a decision has been made for her to return to Minsk.” She was scheduled to leave on a 10:50 p.m. flight for Istanbul, but upon arriving at the airport, Tymanovskaya approached a Japanese police officer and asked to apply for political asylum, Cotau said.

“I’m afraid to be imprisoned in Belarus,” Tymanovskaya said in an interview with Belarusian sports news website Tribuna on Sunday. “I am not afraid of expulsion or expulsion from the national team. I am worried about my safety. I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus. I did nothing, but they denied me the right to participate in the 200-meter race and I wanted to take me home. “

Throughout the Cold War, many athletes defected from the Soviet Union and the communist Eastern Bloc countries during major sports competitions abroad. Although such actions have become rare since the fall of the Soviet Union, defections from other countries still occur.

Last month, 20-year-old Ugandan weightlifter Julius Siketoliko went missing after leaving a message saying his life in Uganda was very difficult and that he wanted to work in Japan. He was found and taken to police custody. Several African athletes have reportedly gone missing during the 2012 London Games – Eritrean flag-bearing runner Winay Gebrselassie was among those to apply for asylum in the UK.

However, unlike these athletes, Timanovskaya did not appear to be setting off with the intention of defecting for political reasons, and instead appeared to have been forced into the act after speaking out against an official decision to include her in a race she had not previously participated in. .

Sports and politics in Belarus

Tymanovskaya did not say exactly what she feared would be jailed, but Belarusian athletes have faced reprisals, detained and excluded from national teams for criticizing the government following mass protests last year against strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Thousands of people were arrested in the protests, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities amid widespread reports of ill-treatment and torture.

The Belarusian leader ruled the country for 27 years and was in charge of the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) for decades before his eldest son, Victor, took power in February.

However, the IOC refused to recognize Lukashenko’s son, saying in a statement that the Belarus Olympic Committee “did not adequately protect Belarusian athletes from political discrimination.” In December, the IOC banned Lukashenko and his son from attending the Tokyo Games, and on Sunday, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikanovskaya called on the IOC and Japanese authorities to ensure Timanovskaya’s safety and investigate the management of the Belarus Olympic Committee. She cited the arrest of a dissident journalist who was arrested after a Ryanair flight was diverted from Greece to Lithuania and forced to land in Belarus in May.

“The regime’s hijacking of Ryanair was just the beginning of Lukashenka’s international terrorism. They kidnapped Pratasevich and Sabiga, and tried to kidnap Belarusian runner Kristina Timanoskaya. I call on the authorities and the International Olympic Committee to ensure the safety of all Belarusian athletes,” Tikanovskaya said. tweet.

The Belarus Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) was formed in August 2020 during anti-government protests against the disputed re-election of Lukashenko, who has held power in the eastern European country since 1994. It provides legal and financial support to athletes who participated in the elections. aimed at expressing their political opinions.

On Monday, BSSF’s Kotau said Timanovskaya will decide where to apply for asylum. So far, it has received advertisements from Japan, Poland and the Czech Republic, all of which offer visas.

Timanovskaya spoke against sports officials in Belarus

Tymanovskaya told Belarusian sports outlet Tribuna that she had never competed in the 400m and was “furious” at the decision to include her in the relay event.

“I would never begin to react so harshly in my life if they came to me in advance, explained the situation and found out if I could run the 400m while I was ready? But they decided to do everything behind my back despite the fact that I tried to figure out this,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. information but was just ignored.

While her comments don’t appear political, her apparent criticism of an official decision has struck and rattled in a country where dissidents are increasingly punished, especially since last year’s elections.

After recording a video on Instagram to express her frustration, she said, “(Team officials) started calling me with threats and demanding that I delete the video if I wanted to move forward with the sport. At first, I refused to delete it for a long time, but then I did, until they stop calling. with me “.

The Belarusian Olympic Committee said on Sunday that Tymanovskaya withdrew from the Games due to her “emotional and psychological state,” a claim the athlete disputes.

“According to the conclusion of the doctors, due to the emotional and psychological state of the Belarusian track and field athlete Kristina Timanovskaya, the coaching staff of the national track and field team decided to stop the athlete’s performance at the 32nd Olympic Games,” the commission said in a statement on its Facebook page.

“Therefore, the athlete’s request to participate in the qualifying races for the 200-meter race and in the 4×400-meter relay has been withdrawn,” she added.

Tymanovskaya said a psychologist came to talk to her in a way she called “nonsense.”

“No doctors came to me,” she said. “No one examined me.” “I have a good psychological state, despite the fact that such a situation was happening. I tolerate normally, have no health problems, no trauma, no mental problems. I was ready to run.”

Tymanovskaya said that Yuri Moiseevich, coach of the national athletics team, told her that “this issue is no longer at the level of the Federation (athletics), not at the level of the Ministry of Sports, but at a higher level.”

“I have to be eliminated from the Olympics, I’m going home, because I’m on the way to team performance,” she said.

According to BSSF, Timanovskaya’s husband has left Belarus and is in a “safe place”.

CNN reached out to Timanovksaya, the Belarus national Olympic team, and the Belarus embassy in Tokyo for more information, but did not receive a response.

CNN’s Gaon Bay, Chandler Thornton, Muhammed Tawfik and Olga Pavlova contributed to this report. Additional reporting by Reuters.

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