Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was due to race in the 200m heats at Olympic Stadium on Monday, had her Games cut short when she said she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight. Tokyo2020 TokyoOlympics
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Karolos Grohmann and Chang-Ran Kim
In a brewing diplomatic incident, it was unclear where Tsimanouskaya would end up with both Poland and the Czech Republic publicly offering her assistance. She told a Reuters reporter via Telegram that the Belarusian head coach had turned up at her room on Sunday at the athletes village and told her she had to leave.
In response to a number of questions by journalists about what the IOC would do to ensure other athletes in the village were protected, the IOC spokesperson said they were still collecting details about what exactly occurred.A member of the local Belarusian community, who had been in contact with the athlete throughout the night, told Reuters that after long talks with various officials she had petitioned for asylum in Japan.
"The Czech Republic is ready to help," he tweeted. "We are offering her a visa to enter the territory so that she can apply for international protection with us. Our embassy in Tokyo is also ready to help."
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