A Belarusian sprinter has appealed to the International Olympic Committee for help, claiming her country’s officials are trying to fly her home from the Olympics against her will.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says she was taken from her hotel to Tokyo airport, after criticising Belarus Olympic team managers on social media.
Tsimanouskaya, who was due to compete in the women’s 200 metres on Monday, told Reuters she had sought the protection of Japanese police at Tokyo’s Haneda airport so she would not have to board the flight.
“I will not return to Belarus,” she told Reuters in a message over Telegram.
Tsimanouskaya, 24, said coaching staff had come to her room on Sunday and told her to pack. She said she was taken to the airport by representatives of the Belarusian Olympic team.
The Belarusian Olympic Committee said in a statement that coaches had decided to withdraw Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her “emotional, psychological state”. The committee did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The International Olympic Committee said it had spoken to Tsimanouskaya and that she was accompanied by a Tokyo 2020 organiser at the airport.
“She has told us she feels safe,” the IOC said in a tweet. It added the IOC and Tokyo 2020 would continue their conversations with Tsimanouskaya and the authorities “to determine the next steps in the upcoming days”.
Earlier, a Reuters photographer saw the athlete standing next to police at the airport. “I think I am safe,” Tsimanouskaya said. “I am with the police.”
In a video published on Telegram by the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation earlier, Tsimanouskaya had asked the IOC to get involved in her case.
A source at the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, which supports athletes jailed or sidelined for their political views, said Tsimanouskaya planned to request asylum in Germany or Austria on Monday.
Belarus, a former Soviet state, is run with a tight grip by President Alexander Lukashenko. In power since 1994, he faced a wave of protests last year, which some athletes joined.
