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 Olympian was taken to a Tokyo airport after she complained about her coaches.
  • She said she wouldn't go home and was afraid for her life, and was protected by Japanese police.
  • Poland has now given her a humanitarian visa, the BBC reported.
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Poland has granted a humanitarian visa to the Belarusian Olympian who refused to go home after criticizing her coaches, the BBC reported.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a 24-year-old sprinter, said she was forcibly taken to Tokyo's Haneda airport on Sunday and told to board a plane to Belarus.

She said she refused, telling the Belarusian news agency Zerkalo.io: "I am afraid that in Belarus they might put me in jail … I am worried about my safety. And I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus."

She was seen visiting the Polish embassy in Tokyo on Monday.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arriving at the Polish embassy in Tokyo
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arriving at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, Japan, on August 2, 2021.
Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Later on Monday, Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said that Poland would do "whatever is necessary to help her continue her sporting career," the BBC reported.

Her husband has also since fled to Kyiv, Ukraine, and told Agence France-Presse he hopes to join his wife "in the near future."

Belarus, often referred to as Europe's last dictatorship, has previously retaliated against those who have spoken out against the state.

Opposition politicians have fled the country, and in May Belarus diverted a Ryanair passenger plane that was headed to Lithuania, forcing it to land in Belarus in order to arrest 26-year-old journalist Roman Protasevich who was on board.

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