Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who defected from Belarus during the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, has said in an Instagram post that she had been awarded Polish citizenship.
One year ago, sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya's life was upended when she refused to board a plane back to her native Belarus after being kicked out of the Tokyo Olympics by her team.
What began as a controversy over Tsimanouskaya's entry in the 4x400 metres relay snowballed into a defection that became one of the biggest stories of the Games and highlighted the pressure Belarusian athletes face for challenging authority.
Forced out by her national team after criticising coaches for entering her in an event that was not her customary distance, Tsimanouskaya feared for her safety if she returned to Belarus and sought refuge in Poland.
The athlete announced on Instagram on Tuesday she had been awarded Polish citizenship.
"Today I give you my word that I will try 100% to show my full potential, and even if I stand on the podium as a Pole, know that this medal will be for all Belarusians and for our freedom. Long live Belarus! Thank you Poland," she wrote.
Tsimanouskaya is slowly building a new life for herself in Poland, where she plans to study and hopes to one day open a gym with her husband Arseni, a fitness trainer.
The sprinter became a symbol of resistance in Belarus, where critics of leader Alexander Lukashenko were jailed or forced to flee abroad after he cracked down on mass protests over a 2020 election that the opposition said was rigged.
The protests, followed by a violent crackdown on demonstrators, erupted after Lukashenko seized a sixth presidential term in an election that observers say was rigged. He denies electoral fraud.
"I didn't go to the Olympics to represent Lukashenko's authority," she said. "I went to the Olympics to represent Belarus. And for me, Belarus does not equal Lukashenko or the authorities."
In an interview with Reuters this month, Tsimanouskaya said she hoped to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 200 metres, the event she had been set to run the day after Belarus removed her from the team in Tokyo.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: eurosport