Belarus athlete enters Poland's embassy in Tokyo after refusing to return home

A Belarusian athlete at the centre of an Olympic standoff with her own country walked into Poland’s embassy in Japan on Monday, a day after refusing to board a flight home she said she was being forced to take against her wishes by her team.

Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya plans to leave for Poland in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, told Reuters. She is “safe and in good condition” after walking into the embassy on Monday morning, he said.

Another deputy foreign minister, Pawel Jablonski, said: “I can confirm that we have issued a humanitarian visa. I can confirm that we will provide all necessary support in Poland if she wishes to use it.”

Tsimanouskaya, 24, had been due to compete in the women’s 200 metre heats on Monday but she said that on Sunday she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight.

She refused to board the flight, telling Reuters: “I will not return to Belarus.”

The incident has put renewed attention on the political discord in Belarus, a former Soviet state that is run by President Alexander Lukashenko.

Police there have cracked down on dissent following a wave of protests triggered by an election last year which the opposition says was rigged to keep him in power.

The athlete pulled up in front of the Polish embassy in an unmarked silver van about 5 p.m. local time. She stepped out with her official team luggage, and then greeted two officials before entering the premises.

Two women, one carrying the red and white flag considered the symbol of opposition in Belarus, came to the gates to support her.

POLICE PROTECTION

Her husband, Arseni Zhdanevich, will join her in Poland, a Warsaw-based Belarusian opposition politician said.

“Thanks to the support of the Belarusian Athletes’ Solidarity Foundation, (Tsimanouskaya’s) husband is in Kiev and he will join Krystsina,” Pavel Latushko told Reuters.

Zhdanevich had already entered Ukraine, a Ukrainian interior ministry source said.

Tsimanouskaya told a Reuters reporter via Telegram that the Belarusian head coach had turned up at her room on Sunday at the athletes’ village and told her she had to leave.

“The head coach came over to me and said there had been an order from above to remove me,” she wrote in the message. “At 5 (pm) they came my room and told me to pack and they took me to the airport.”

But she refused to board and sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport.

Belarus athletics head coach Yuri Moisevich told state television he “could see there was something wrong with her… She either secluded herself or didn’t want to talk.”

Earlier on Monday, International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said officials would continue conversations with Tsimanouskaya and had asked for a full report from Belarus’ Olympic committee.

The Japanese government said the athlete had been kept safe while Tokyo 2020 organizers and the IOC checked her intentions.