Belarusian Olympic Coaches Stripped Of Credentials Over Sprinter Scandal

Two Belarusian team Olympic coaches were separated from the Olympics over their involvement with the recent scandal surrounding Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. 

As reported by the Associated Press, “The International Olympic Committee [(IOC)] said Friday it has canceled and removed the credentials of Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich.”

“The two coaches were requested to leave the Olympic Village immediately and have done so,” the IOC said.

It was reportedly carried out “as an interim measure” during an official investigation “in the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes,” the Olympic group said.

The IOC said Shimak and Maisevich “will be offered an opportunity to be heard” by its disciplinary group looking into the case. 

The Belarusian Olympic committee reportedly said that both of the officials will go back to Minsk, Belarus, soon and “they reserve the right to appeal against the decision.”

As reported by The Daily Wire, Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she was taken off of the Olympic team after she criticized her coaches in a post on social media. She was brought to the airport in order to go back to Belarus, but told Japanese authorities that she did not want to go back to her home country. She asked for help from the law enforcement authorities when she got to the airport. 

In an interview with Reuters, Tsimanouskaya said earlier this week that the two people had informed her that the command to send her back to Belarus had come from “high up” in the country.

“I am under pressure and they are trying to take me out of the country without my consent. I ask the International Olympic Committee to interfere,” she said in a video posted by Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, a non-governmental organization.

“I am afraid that in Belarus they might put me in jail. I am not afraid that I will be fired or kicked out of the national command,” she told Belarusian media outlet Tribuna. “I am worried about my safety. And I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus.”

On Sunday, Poland’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marcin Pryzdacz, said that Tsimanouskaya had been given a visa.

“Poland is ready to help Kryscina Tsimanouskaya a Belarusian athlete ordered by the Lukashenka regime to return form (sic) Olympic Games to Minsk,” Pryzdacz said on Twitter. “She was offered a humanitarian visa and is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses.” 

As The Daily Wire reported, “Tsimanouskaya was reportedly told to fly to Austria first by Polish security officials, according to the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, which helped to organize what appears to now be a defection. She will meet her husband, who fled Belarus after learning of his wife’s troubles, in Poland. He has also been offered a visa.”

“We are very happy that she is here safe,” an Austrian official said on Wednesday. “But she is scared about her future and about her family.”

The Olympic situation unfolded in light of recent abuses and infringements of human rights that have taken place in Belarus against journalists. The European country of Belarus has had the attention of the international community after its tumultuous and allegedly fraudulent presidential election last year. Earlier this year, the regime reportedly grounded a civilian flight that was carrying a dissident journalist and arrested the man. Authorities also raided the homes and offices of human rights activists and journalists in February. 

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