A former Olympian from Belarus has become the second athlete from the country in days to say they do not want to return to their homeland out fear the country’s authoritarian regime will kill them.
Heptathlete Yana Maksimava, who competed in the Beijing and London Olympics and currently lives in Germany, made the announcement on Instagram Tuesday, after a sprinter from the country left the Tokyo Olympics to seek asylum in Poland.
“Thinking and thinking for a long time, we decided not to return to Belarus. To our great regret, now there you can lose not only freedom, but also lose your life,” Maksimava wrote alongside an image of her and her son.
“Here there is an opportunity to breathe deeply and be one of those who are fighting for the freedom of their people, friends, relatives and friends, we will definitely Win.”
The married mom said she hopes she’ll be able to continue her sporting career in Germany and earn a spot at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The athlete didn’t reference sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya in the post but did allude to the brutality of President Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus, which violently quashed protests last August following a disputed election that was widely considered to be fraudulent.
Belarus, a former Soviet state, has been under Lukashenko’s autocratic rule since 1994 and has been accused of a slew of human rights abuses, including no freedom of expression and assembly and arbitrary arrest and detention, according to Amnesty International.
Political “disappearances” are also common in Belarus as a means to silence Lukashenko’s dissidents, Amnesty International said.
On Tuesday, the body of activist Vitaly Shishov, a fierce Lukashenko opponent who helps Belarusians escape the country, was found hanging from a tree in a park close to his home in Kiev, Ukraine and those close to him are positive it wasn’t a suicide.
“He recently noted vehicles and people who were following him,” Shishov’s girlfriend, Bazhena Zholudz, said.
“I don’t believe in suicide, nothing in Vitaly’s conduct signaled his intention to kill himself.”
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Tsimanouskaya, who griped online that her coaches put her in a relay race that she didn’t train for without consulting her, was ordered by her coaches to not compete and return back to Belarus immediately once her remarks spread.
At the Tokyo airport, she narrowly escaped her minders and was taken into protective custody by local police officers. She was later seen entering the Polish embassy where she was offered asylum and a humanitarian visa.
On Wednesday, Tsimanouskaya was seen arriving in Vienna and is expected to head to Poland soon.
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This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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