The Belarusian Olympic Committee said it was ready on Friday to defend its delegation against "discrimination", two coaches having been sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics after an athlete said she was threatened with being forcibly repatriated to Belarus.
The Belarusian Olympic Committee said it was ready on Friday to defend its delegation against "discrimination", two coaches having been sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics after an athlete said she was threatened with being forcibly repatriated to Belarus.
The Belarusian Olympic organization told Telegram that it would continue to "protect the interests of all athletes and coaches against all forms of discrimination" after the International Olympic Committee withdrew the accreditation of two coaches for the Olympics in because of their role in the Krystsina Tsimanouskaya case.
"Provisional" sanction
The Belarusian Committee, which is headed by one of the sons of authoritarian President Alexander Loukachenko, notes that the IOC's sanction is "provisional" and that "the procedure is continuing".
"We are open to the continuation of the dialogue and are working closely with the IOC to understand the reasons for the decision which has been taken," he continues, assuring that the two sanctioned officials would return to Minsk and "reserve the right to do so. call".
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a specialist in the 100 and 200 m, claimed last Sunday to have escaped forced repatriation to Belarus, a few days after having openly criticized the Athletics Federation of her country which had registered her for the 4x400 m relay without the l '' notify it in advance.
Fearing that she would end up in prison if she returned to Belarus, she had obtained IOC help and police protection while at Tokyo-Haneda airport.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, then took refuge for two nights at the Polish embassy in the Japanese capital, before heading to Poland on Wednesday, which granted her a humanitarian visa.
Belarus has been the scene for a year of a vast repression of a protest movement of historic magnitude against the re-election last August of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994. Thousands of opponents, dissidents and simple demonstrators have been arrested or forced into exile.