Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanowskaja reports that her coaches urged her to return to Belarus because of critical comments. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now drawing conclusions.
As a consequence of the Timanovskaya case, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew the accreditation of two Belarusian coaches. The decision was made “in the interests of the well-being of the Belarusian athletes who are still in Tokyo,” said the IOC on Friday in the short message service Twitter. The Belarusian Olympian Kristina Timanovskaya said she was supposed to be brought back to Minsk against her will because she criticized sports officials in her country in Japan.
Athletics trainer Yuri Maisewitsch and functionary Artur Schimak had to leave the Olympic village. You will continue to have the opportunity to hear, the IOC said.
Timanowskaja left for Poland
The 24-year-old sprinter was under massive pressure from the Belarusian leadership in Minsk during the Olympic Games in Tokyo. After speaking critically about the officials, she feared being kidnapped. She asked the Japanese police and the IOC for help and has meanwhile been able to travel from Tokyo to Poland via Vienna on a “humanitarian visa”.
The athlete had criticized the Belarusian sports officials for having been selected for the 4×400-meter race instead of the 200-meter run at the Olympic Games without consulting her.
In response to the athlete’s criticism, the Belarusian National Olympic Committee (NOK) stated that Timanovskaya would be eliminated from the competition because of her “emotional and psychological state”. The athlete denied these claims.
The Belarusian authorities have been cracking down on critics of the government for months. Last year, mass protests after the controversial re-election of ruler Alexander Lukashenko were brutally suppressed. Since then, many government critics have gone abroad and many more have been arrested.
Timanovskaya is among more than 2,000 Belarusian athletes who have signed an open letter calling for new elections and the release of political prisoners.
“Later a psychologist came to me”
In an interview with “Welt” (Saturday edition) and the partner newspapers “Gazeta Wyborcza” from Poland and “El Pais” from Spain, Timanowskaja described Details of their escape. The trainer and the members of the Belarusian NOK had initially urged her to return home at her hotel and threatened her. “You said that if I get up and run away, the consequences will be serious.”
“Later a psychologist came to me, a man who tried to put me under pressure and who scared me,” said the sprinter. “He told me several times that I had problems with my head and began to tell incomprehensible things about manic states. He explained that people in a state like me are suicidal.”
At the same time, Belarusian TV channels had started reporting on the situation. “I learned from my parents that there was material about me on state television portraying me as a disturbed personality in poor mental health,” said Timanovskaya. She herself feared that she would end up in prison or in psychiatry if she returned to Belarus.
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