Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said on Sunday that she was forced to suspend her participation in the Tokyo Olympics and leave Japan, after criticizing her federation on social networks.

"I ask the International Olympic Committee to help me, I have been pressured and they are trying to get me out of the country without my consent," said the 24-year-old athlete in a video on Instagram.

“The IOC has seen the articles in the media, is studying the situation and has asked the Belarusian NOC (National Olympic Committee) for explanations,” an IOC spokesperson told AFP.

According to the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was at the Haneda airport in Tokyo, terminal 3 on Sunday evening. "The Belarusian athlete is being evacuated from Tokyo by force," said this Foundation on Telegram , specifying that he had requested the intervention of the Japanese police to prevent this departure.

‼ ️Belarussian athlete Khrystina Tsimanouskaya, who is in Tokyo for the #Olympic Games and who has criticized the regime in #Belarus, is being forcibly expelled by people in civilian clothes (no doubt from the KGB).

If she returns, no doubt she will be arrested.

pic.twitter.com/5J8I0dRR0i

- Andrei VAITOVICH (@andreivaitovich) August 1, 2021

The Foundation then assured that the young woman had been placed under police protection and that a representative of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was going to the airport to meet her.

The athlete plans to apply for political asylum at the Austrian embassy in Tokyo, according to the same source.

For its part, the Belarusian Olympic Committee headed by Viktor Loukachenko, son of President Alexander Loukachenko, assured in a statement that the sportswoman had to suspend her participation in the Olympics on "decision of the doctors, because of his emotional and psychological state".

A statement immediately qualified as a "lie" by the athlete in front of the press at the airport.

Athlete forced to participate in the 4x400-meter relay

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya fiercely criticized the Belarusian Athletics Federation this week, claiming that she was forced to compete in the 4x400m relay when she was initially supposed to run the 100m and 200m because two other athletes failed to compete. carried out a sufficient number of doping controls, she said. "Why do we have to pay for your mistakes? (...) It's arbitrary, ”she protested in a post on Instagram.

“I would never have reacted so harshly if I had been told in advance, if I had been explained the whole situation and asked if I was able to run a 400 meters.

But we decided to do everything behind my back, ”she wrote in a separate post.

For months, ViktorLoukachenko's regime has relentlessly pursued a crackdown on opponents, journalists and activists, with the hope of definitively putting down the historic protest movement of 2020 against his re-election to a fifth term.

Sport

Olympic Games 2021: The formidable image of Barshim and Tamberi who share the gold medal in the high jump

Sport

2021 Olympics: French foilists are Olympic champions after their success in the final against Russia

  • Alexander Lukashenko

  • Athletics

  • Sport

  • Tokyo Olympics 2021

  • Olympic Games

  • Belarus