Warsaw:
Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya mentioned she was “happy to be in safety” in Warsaw on Thursday a day soon after arriving in Poland, exactly where she took take refuge soon after saying she feared for her life if forced to return home.
The 24-year-old athlete has been at the centre of a diplomatic drama in the middle of the Games considering that searching for the protection of Tokyo 2020 employees on Sunday, saying her group was attempting to bundle her onto a plane soon after she publicly criticised her coaches.
“I am also happy to be here, happy to be in safety,” the 24-year-old told reporters in the Polish capital exactly where she arrived from Tokyo by means of Vienna.
Tsimanouskaya mentioned she was “surprised that the situation became such a political scandal because it started out as a sporting issue”, and revealed that “she was “not pondering about political asylum” in Poland, which has granted her a humanitarian visa.
“I just want to pursue my sporting profession,” she said, adding that her husband, Arseny Zdanevich, was “currently on the road to Poland – he will be right here today”.
The Polish government said Zdanevich had also been given a humanitarian visa after he fled to Ukraine on Wednesday.
Before leaving Tokyo, Tsimanouskaya spent two nights sheltering in the Polish embassy there after calling for international help.
Belarus has been wracked by political upheaval and a crackdown on dissent after disputed elections that returned strongman Alexander Lukashenko to power last year.
Tsimanouskaya was one of more than 2,000 Belarusian sports figures who signed an open letter calling for new elections and for political prisoners to be freed.
But her trouble in Tokyo came after she posted on her Instagram, criticising her coaches for entering her into a race without informing her first.
“My parents told me that they are saying terrible points about me on tv… I got a lot of terrible messages but I got even more messages of help,” Tsimanouskaya told reporters
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