Belarusian athlete recorded at home as traitors
Belarusian athlete, Tokyo Olympic participant Kristina Timanovskaya refuses to return to Minsk. She previously publicly criticized the work of the leadership of the Belarusian Sports Committee, so she was excluded from the competition and tried to be forcibly deported. He is now under the protection of the Polish embassy in Tokyo and intends to go to Warsaw on Wednesday.
Photo: Social Networks
As soon as the citizens of Belarus rejoiced at the first gold medal brought to the country by trampoline player Igor Litvinovich, Minsk found itself in the middle of a scandal. The conflict arose literally from scratch. There were many opportunities to avoid this, but the Belarusian authorities decided to use Soviet methods – to deprive athletes of their choice.
It turned out that the leadership of the Belarusian Olympic Committee missed the passing of doping tests on two athletes in the 4 x 400 meter relay – Christina Mulyarchik and Anna Mikhailova. To rectify the situation, it was decided to replace them with other athletes, including Kristina Timanovska, a 100- and 200-meter runner. Not only is the preparation for short-distance races very different, but the girl herself learned about the exchange by chance – when she saw herself in the table of participants. She responded to this decision with a Instagram post, indignant that she should not have learned about it from “left” people and generally should not pay for her “joint”.
As a result, they tried to drive Timanovska almost insane, saying that she was generally closed-minded and had lost her temper before the competition. The head coach of the Belarusian national athletics team, Yuri Moisevich, suddenly realized that Timanovska had planned something like this in advance. According to Belarusian state channels, the athlete was accused of treason and unwillingness to try for a common goal.
Later, the athlete deleted her post and wrote a new one that if she had been contacted in advance and asked humanly, she would not have reacted so harshly. But by then, the runner had been removed from all distances and tried to be forcibly taken to Minsk, which was why the girl asked the IOC for help. She suspected that she could be imprisoned at home, which basically makes sense – people accused of treason in the Belarusian media often end up in solitary confinement. Now the athlete has received a humanitarian visa from Poland. He is expected to arrive in Warsaw this week. Her husband Arsena Zdanevich was also forced to leave Belarus.
We talked about this situation with the Executive Director of the Belarusian Solidarity Fund for Sport, Alexander Opeikin.
– The human factor and negligence played a role here. Officials just “pushed it out.” There is no political motive. It is a gross mistake made by officials that led to this scandal. However, it is important to note here that this could be prevented if there was a human dialogue between the representatives of the Belarusian delegation, the leaders of the national team and the athletes.
– Due to the fact that two participants in the relay could not go to the Olympics due to these tests, it was necessary to plug the “hole”, otherwise 2 but 4 participants would be eliminated from the relay. But it is not a basic discipline for Timanovska. The athletes themselves say that the difference is very large, there is a serious difference in training and most importantly it is traumatic for athletes.
– Nobody discussed this decision with Timanska, she was simply presented with a fact. And after she was indignant, they started pushing her. There were stories on the state channels where she was exposed as a traitor. Then, of course, she felt dangerous, because everyone who is called a traitor in the media would quickly end up in prison. But even after this video, the situation could be resolved. Instead, they tried to deport her to Minsk by force, again without explaining or discussing anything. This is a serious violation of the rights of the athlete and the person.
“Judging by this criterion, of the entire Belarusian delegation, only 2-3 people could ask for a medal, and the rest could not go.” She is a participant in the Olympic Games and has a qualification, and it is unrealistic to talk about the expected result – that is a sport.
– Of course she is young, she is 23 years old. He can go to three more Olympics.
– It's her personal decision. I think that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted very quickly to this situation. And Poland is a close country for Belarus. Of all European countries, it is the most understandable for Belarus.
– What we have seen is a model of the Soviet system. The athlete is perceived as a slave, without rights and names. But now there is another generation of athletes who know how to use phones and perceive themselves differently. Timanovskaya is a great example of a brave woman. She showed that she would not be silent.
They tried to take the Belarusian athlete Timanovska from Tokyo: photos of the athlete
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Recall that Kristina Timanovskaya became a better runner at 100 and 200 meters in 2020 in Belarus. In the same year, she met the qualifying standard for participating in the 200-meter Tokyo Olympics, but then the competition was postponed due to a pandemic. The athlete has the honorary title of “International Sports Champion of the Republic of Belarus”. So far, her best success is winning the World Universiade in Naples in 2019.