EXCLUSIVE-Belarusian skiers blame politics after being excluded from competition

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By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

MOSCOW, Jan.11 (Reuters) – Two Belarusian cross-country skiers, including one who hoped to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics next month, said authorities banned them from competing after sports officials accused them of support the country’s political opposition.

The skiers, Sviatlana Andryiuk and Darya Dolidovich, are the latest elite athletes to be targeted since a crackdown on criticism from veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko after a 2020 presidential election his opponents deem fraudulent. Lukashenko denied having rigged the vote.

The skiers said the Belarusian Ski Union last month deactivated their FIS code, an individual identification number required for athletes to participate in competitions supervised by the International Ski Federation (FIS). They are excluded from official competitions, including qualifications for major international events.

The skiers said the head of the Belarusian Cross-Country Skiing Federation, Aliaksandr Darakhovich, in November ordered officials to ban them from participating in international competitions and national training camps.

The federation did not respond to a request for comment from Darakhovich, who is also deputy chairman of the city of Minsk executive committee.

In response to questions from Reuters, the FIS said it could confirm that the FIS codes of the two athletes appeared as “inactive” in its database.

“FIS is in the process of contacting the Belarusian Ski Federation to get all the information on the two athletes involved and will provide any updates as soon as they are received,” she said in a statement.

The Belarusian Ski Union did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters seeking comment on the two cases.

Andryiuk, 22, says the decision forced her to miss a qualifying event that could have secured her a berth at the Beijing Olympics.

“They (sports officials) accused me verbatim of being an opposition supporter,” Andryiuk, who also lost his job in the state over the accusations, told Reuters on a video call. .

Andryiuk said she never publicly expressed her political views, which she characterized as neutral. She said her situation forced her to leave Belarus.

“I don’t want to be here,” she said. “I am planning to move to Poland because it is impossible to live here.”

PROTESTS 2020

17-year-old Darya Dolidovich is one of Belarus’ most promising junior cross-country skiers. She is also the daughter of cross-country skier Sergei Dolidovich, a seven-time Olympian who took part in street protests and spoke out against Lukashenko.

Darya Dolidovich told Reuters, also on a video call, that she believed her father’s political views were behind the move.

“I haven’t done anything myself that would justify disqualifying and disabling my FIS code,” she told Reuters, adding that she shared her father’s point of view.

Sergei Dolidovich, who coaches his daughter, said he quit his job at a national training center after being pressured for his support of the opposition.

“The state can no longer have an impact on me,” he said. “He can only do it through my daughter.

Several Belarusian sports figures joined opposition protests in 2020, an unusual move in a country where the state heavily subsidizes athletes.

Some athletes have been jailed. Others lost their jobs in the state or were kicked out of national teams.

At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to fly home when she was unwillingly excluded from the Games after publicly complaining about the national team coaches . She defected to Poland, saying she feared for her safety if she returned to Belarus.

(Report by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, edited by Timothy Heritage)

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