Dhe Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanowskaja is still threatened more than three months after fleeing the Olympic Games in Tokyo to Poland. “I’m afraid. And I keep receiving threats, including on Instagram. ‘We’ll break your arms and legs,’ they write, “said the 35-year-old in an interview with stern magazine.
During the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Timanovskaya said she had been put under pressure by her trainer and the deputy head of the national training center. She was supposed to fly home against her will before her 200-meter race after publicly criticizing her coach for a sporting decision.
Ready for Poland in the future?
Fearing the consequences in authoritarian Belarus, she turned to the police and finally found help at the Polish embassy. The decision made her life “completely mixed up,” says Timanovskaya: “But I would do the same thing again today.”
Timanowskaja’s grandmother had warned her not to return to her home country. “As soon as I landed in Belarus, I should be taken to a psychiatric clinic. Everything was prepared, ”said the athlete.
At the same time, her husband Arseniy Sdanewitsch, also an athlete, managed to escape from Belarus, which was led by the Lukashenko regime. The couple now live in exile in the Polish capital, Warsaw, under strict security precautions. There Timanowskaja is preparing for her sporty comeback and hopes to soon be able to compete in international competitions for Poland.
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