Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya said Monday morning she is “safe” and under police cover in Japan after claiming her country forced her to leave the Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old said team officials tried to expel her from Japan by opposing her will after criticizing the Belarusian Athletics Federation for enrolling her in a relay race in Tokyo by giving her notice.
She claimed in videos posted on social media that two officials accompanied her to the airport and asked her to return home.
This came after Reports on Monday morning that he had taken a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul, however, Russian news firm Tass has since reported that there is no one on the flight with his name.
His public call for foreign aid has fallen on deaf ears and his next move remains a mystery.
It has issued public declarations of asylum in a European country. Some reports claim that Austria is their favorite destination.
Poland and the Czech Republic are the countries that have said they will take in Timanovskaya if she fears for her protection in her home country.
However, Timanovskaya insisted monday morning that she had and proved that she had stayed in Tokyo in an article published in the early hours of Monday.
“I am sure and they are deciding where I will spend the night,” Timanovskaya said in a statement through the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), an organization that supports opposition athletes.
“It turns out that our big bosses have everything for us as a decision,” he said on his Instagram stories that are no longer available.
Olympic ordered to “eliminate” it
He also gave an ordinary interview to the Russian news site Zerkalo from Tokyo airport.
“I’m outraged,” she said.
“After all, we got here to the Olympics, and it is opposed to all regulations to claim us for a remote occasion in which we have never competed in our lives. It’s a general lack of respect for athletes.
“It’s all chaos. “
He said the resolution was not made through the sports federation or the sports ministry, “but at a higher level. “
“They said they had to take me out of the Olympics and go home that I’m interfering with the team’s performance,” he said, according to the New York Times.
Tsimanouskaya later said in another Instagram post that I wouldn’t have “reacted so harshly if I had been warned in advance, explained the total scenario and asked me if I could run 400 meters. “
“But they made the decision to do everything behind my back,” he added.
The OSSB said the Belarusian had tried to “expel” Timanovskaya.
The organization previously said the sprinter, who was scheduled to compete in the women’s 200-meter playoffs at the Olympic Stadium on Monday, at a Tokyo airport with Belarusian team officials and posted a video in which the athlete appealed to the International Olympic Committee.
“I am under pressure and they are looking to get me out of the country with my consent. I ask the International Olympic Committee to intervene,” Timanovskaya said in the video.
Journalists described it as a “kidnapping. “
The OSB also issued an AP. The officials’ reaction “was a clear sign that his life would be in danger in Belarus. “
Disturbing video emerges from threats
The leak of a terrifying verbal exchange that Timanovskaya allegedly spoke to the head coach of the Belarusian national athletics team, Yuri Moisevich, followed.
The unverified video includes statements that can be interpreted as threats.
“Just up close,” say the voices in the video in Timanovskaya, according to Russian media analyst Julia Davis.
“Right here. “
“Leave alone. “
“Send. “
You are like a fly in a spider’s web, the you, worse you get entangled.
Later, an opposition organization issued confirmation that he was safe. The Belarusian Olympic Committee had claimed that Timanovskaya had left the Tokyo Games on medical advice due to her “emotional and mental state”.
But, speaking through the OSSB, Timanovskaya said the claim is “not true” and said it had not been proven by doctors.
The IOC told AFP: “The IOC has noticed the data in the media, is examining the scenario and has asked the NOC (Belarusian Olympic officials) for clarification. “
The BSSF was founded last August through retired Belarusian swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia, when protests erupted following the disputed re-election of strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.
Herasimenia, who now lives in exile in Lithuania, sold her gold medal at the 2012 World Championships to budget for the foundation.
It provides monetary and legal assistance to athletes attacked by the government after calling for an end to the violent police crackdown on protesters.
The turmoil has led Belarus to avoid this year’s Ice Hockey World Championships and ban Lukashenko from attending Olympic events.
– with AFP