Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she has been taken to the airport against her wishes and will not return home.
Reuters
  • A Belarusian Olympic athlete has been "forcibly" removed from the Tokyo Games, local media reports say.
  • Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is refusing to board the flight home and is now seeking asylum in Austria.
  • The sprinter, who has criticized her national team, wants the International Olympic Committee to intervene.
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A Belarusian Olympic athlete, who has been critical of her country's national team, has been "forcibly" removed from the Tokyo Games and is now seeking asylum in Austria, according to local media reports.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, who was scheduled to compete in the women's 200-meter race on Monday, was involuntarily taken to Tokyo-Haneda airport on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Representatives of the Belarusian national team bought Tsimanouskaya a plane ticket to Minsk and tried to force her to board the flight against her will, Belarusian media outlet NEXTA said.

"They [Belarus Olympic committee officials] didn't explain to me anything. I was just told to pack my things. They bought me a ticket and escorted me to the airport," she said, according to Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan.

"I will not return to Belarus," she told Reuters in a Telegram message.

Tsimanouskaya has said that she is now planning to apply for asylum in Austria, according to Giczan.

In a video shared on Twitter, Tsimanouskaya appealed to the International Olympic Committee for "help."

"Pressure has been put on me and they are trying to take me out of the country without my consent," she said. "I am asking the International Olympic Committee to intervene in this."

The Belarusian Olympic Committee has said that her participation in the Tokyo Games was withdrawn due to her "psychological state," said a statement seen by NEXTA.

Tsimanouskaya has recently been critical of her national team's sports coaches.

The sprinter allegedly complained on Instagram that she was entered into this Thursday's 400-meter relay at short notice without having trained for the event, Giczan reported.

She told Reuters that she was withdrawn from the team because she "spoke on Instagram about the negligence of our coaches."

Belarus is headed by Europe's "last dictator," Alexander Lukashenko. Several prominent politicians and independent journalists have mysteriously disappeared under his regime. In August 2020, several Belarusian soccer players were imprisoned.

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