Belarusian Olympic sprinter says she is being pressured to leave Tokyo after criticizing her country’s Olympic officials
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she had sought the protection of Japanese police and will ask for asylum.
Hasnain says:
“On Sunday, Tsimanouskaya reposted a statement from the Belarus Olympic Committee saying she had been removed from competition due to her “emotional and psychological state.”
“This is a lie,” she wrote.
Tsimanouskaya told Belarusian sports news outlet Tribuna that a senior coach in Minsk and another official had called to tell her to delete her earlier video from Instagram if she wanted to continue her athletic career. And she said the head coach of the national team, Yuri Moisevich, had suggested she should claim an injury and bow out of her race and the Games, as she was interfering with the team’s performance.”
Posted on 2021-08-01T20:58:49+0000