Ever since the controversial presidential election in Belarus in 2020, which Alexander Lukashenko won after suspected electoral fraud, there has been real unrest in the country.
The unrest has affected sports in many different ways.
Among other things, the country lost its hosting of the Ice Hockey World Cup last year, and in connection with the Olympics in Tokyo last summer, the sprint Kristina Timanovskaya fled to Poland, after she - according to her own statement - was kidnapped by her own leaders, before she managed to get help from Japanese police.
Lost job too
Now the country is being shaken by a new sports scandal.
The news agency Reuters writes that two Belarusian skiers, Sviatlana Andrijuk and Darija Dolidovich, have been stopped by the Belarusian authorities from further competition.
The reason is that sports leaders must have accused them of supporting the country's political opposition.
- They accused me of being a supporter of the opposition, Andrijuk tells Reuters, and further tells that after the accusations she also lost her government job.
Want to leave the country
Andrijuk, who aimed to get to the Olympics this winter, also says that she has never made a public statement politically, and claims that she is neutral in her political views.
But the current events mean that she now wants to leave the country.
- I do not want to be here.
I plan to go to Poland, because it is impossible to live here, she says.
No comments from the ski association
The other stopped skier, 17-year-old Darija Dolidovich, is the daughter of seven-time Olympian Sergei Dolidovich, who took part in protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
- The state can no longer influence me.
The only way they can do that is through my daughter, he says.
The Belarusian Ski Federation has not commented on the matter when Reuters contacted them, but the International Ski Federation (Fis) confirms that the skiers in their database now have the status "inactive".
"Fis is currently seeking contact with the Belarusian Ski Federation to get all the information about the two athletes in question, and will provide updates when we receive a response," they wrote in a statement.