Belarus runner flies to Europe after feud with team managers

A Belarusian sprinter left Tokyo en route to Europe on Wednesday after resisting an attempt by her Olympic team's officials to send her home to Belarus, where the athlete said she could be in danger from authorities who have relentlessly cracked down on dissent.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya boarded a plane at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport that left the gate for Vienna, though it was not immediately clear if the Austrian capital would be her final destination. Before leaving Japan, Tsimanouskaya said she hoped she could continue her career but that safety was her immediate priority.

Several countries offered to help after the 24-year-old runner sought refuge in the European Union, and Poland has granted her a humanitarian visa.

Tsimanouskaya's experience at the Tokyo Games became an international issue after she accused Belarusian team officials of hustling her to the airport several days ago and trying to put her on a plane to Belarus because she had criticized the team's management on social media. The team officials made it clear she would face reprisals back home, she said.

The officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya told The Associated Press in a videocall interview from Tokyo on Tuesday. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”

She added that she believed she would be kicked off Belarus' national team.

“I would very much like to continue my sporting career because I’m just 24, and I had plans for two more Olympics at least,” Tsimanouskaya said. But “for now, the only thing that concerns me is my safety.”

Reached by phone Tuesday, Dzmitry Dauhalionak, the head of Belarus’ delegation at the Summer Olympics, declined comment, saying that he has “no words.”

Tsimanouskaya’s criticism of how officials were managing her team set off a massive backlash in state-run media in Belarus. The runner said on Instagram that she was put in the 4x400 relay even though she has never raced in the event. She was then barred from competing in the 200 meters.

The sprinter called on international sports authorities Tuesday “to investigate the situation, who gave the order, who actually took the decision that I can’t compete anymore.” She suggested possible sanctions against the head coach.

In the AP interview, Tsimanouskaya also expressed worry for her parents, who remain in Belarus. Her husband, Arseni Zdanevich, told the AP that he decided to leave the country when Tsimanouskaya told him she wasn’t coming back.

Belarus was rocked by months of protests after President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in an August 2020 election that the opposition and the West saw as rigged. Authorities responded to demonstrations with a sweeping crackdown that saw over 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.

In a show of determination to stifle dissent at any cost, they diverted a passenger plane that was flying from Greece to Lithuania in May and ordered it to land in the Belarusian capital where they arrested an opposition journalist who was on board.

The authoritarian Belarusian president, who led the Belarus National Olympic Committee for almost a quarter-century before handing over the job to his older son in February, has shown a keen interest in sports, seeing it as a key element of national prestige.

Both Lukashenko and his son were banned from the Tokyo Games by the International Olympic Committee which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced intimidation during the crackdown on anti-government protests over the last year.

Western leaders have condemned Tsimanouskaya's treatment by Belarusian authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Belarusian officials' attempt to force Tsimanouskaya to return to Belarus for exercising free speech as “another act of transnational repression.”

“Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated,” Blinken said on Twitter.