Belarusian runner ends Olympic career with asylum claim

Belarusian runner ends Olympic career with asylum claim 

Belarusian runner Kristina Timanovskaya didn't think her Olympic career would end with her as a refugee at Tokyo airport. The International Olympic Committee is following the case closely and is asking the Belarusian Committee for explanations. According to media reports, Belarusian Olympic runner Kristina Timanovskaya, who competes in the Tokyo Olympics, has applied for asylum at the Polish embassy in Tokyo. According to the same information, the 24-year-old runner applied for asylum after authorities in her country forced her to leave Japan against her will, she said.

And there was identical information in the media that Timanovskaya will visit Warsaw on Wednesday after Polish authorities accepted his request. She spent the night of Sunday, August 2 in a hotel at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, said Mark Adams, spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, stressing that she is in a "safe" place. He added that the International Olympic Committee contacted her on Monday morning and also asked the Belarusian National Olympic Committee (NOK) to respond in writing to Timanovskaya's allegations. It comes after a distress call, in which the runner expressed fears on social media of being returned to Belarus against her will, and asked for the protection of the International Olympic Committee. The call was followed by a "turbulent" night, as the IOC spokesperson described it, adding that at the Tokyo airport, Timanovskaya had the support of the Japanese police and "other institutions. ", without revealing its nature. The Belarus Sports Support Foundation (BSSF), a non-governmental organization operating in Belarus, had in turn alerted the "danger" to the Olympic athlete, and wrote on Telegram that "representatives of the Belarusian team are trying to kidnap the athlete. (Timanovskaya) is from Tokyo, and a plane ticket to Minsk has been purchased. " This follows a request made by the Belarusian Olympic Committee under the leadership of Viktor Lukashenko, son of the country's president Nikolai Lukashenko, that Tymanovskaya withdraw from Olympic competitions due to his "psychological and mental state", the statement said. official. .

The runner believes that the reason for the "anger" of the authorities in her country is due to a deleted video clip she posted on Instagram, in which she criticized the Belarusian Athletics Federation. Tymanovskaya said she was forced to start the 400x4 relay because the federation failed to guarantee the appropriate number of doping controls for athletes already assigned to the relay. "I wouldn't have been so cruel before if someone had told me ahead of time, explained the whole situation and asked if I could run the 400 meters. But they decided to do it all behind my back."