Shock twist in 'deplorable' Olympic saga

3 years ago 311

An probe into 2 Belarus squad officials who tried to unit sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya connected a flight from the Tokyo Olympics volition present beryllium tally by way and tract authorities.

World Athletics said connected Thursday its autarkic Athletics Integrity Unit is taking implicit the lawsuit from the International Olympic Committee. No timetable was fixed for the investigation.

The Belarus team's attraction of Tsimanouskaya created a diplomatic incident astatine the Tokyo Olympics with Japanese authorities and Poland's embassy coming to her aid.

Team officials Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich were progressive successful taking Tsimanouskaya to the airdrome to nonstop her location to Belarus aft she criticised coaches connected societal media.

Tsimanouskaya sought assistance astatine the airdrome due to the fact that she feared for her information if she returned to Minsk. Within days, she and her hubby got humanitarian visas to enactment successful Poland.

Belarus has been successful turmoil amid a state-ordered information crackdown since August 2020 erstwhile authoritarian president Aleksander Lukashenko claimed a sixth word aft an predetermination wide viewed arsenic rigged successful his favour. The erstwhile Soviet republic has relentlessly pursued its critics.

Shimak and Maisevich continued to person interaction with Belarus squad members successful Tokyo for 4 much days aft the airdrome incidental until the IOC withdrew their Olympic credentials.

IOC President Thomas Bach said successful Tokyo it was a "deplorable case."

The IOC past twelvemonth banned some Lukashenko and his lad Viktor from attending aboriginal Olympics aft athletes said they faced reprisals and intimidation successful the information crackdown.

Lukashenko led the Belarusian Olympic committee from the 1990s until this twelvemonth erstwhile his lad replaced him.

Still, the IOC had been urged for months up of Tokyo by activists successful Belarus and planetary groups representing athletes to afloat suspend the nationalist Olympic committee. That would person fto Tsimanouskaya and the remainder of the 103-member Belarusian squad vie successful Tokyo arsenic independents nether the Olympic flag.

Tsimanouskaya had criticized her coaches for asking her to tally successful an lawsuit she had not trained for. She was needed to regenerate athletes ruled ineligible due to the fact that of a substandard nationalist anti-doping program.

World Athletics said its investigators successful the Belarus lawsuit "will behaviour the procedure, with the afloat collaboration and enactment of the IOC."

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