After taking refuge in Warsaw after Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Belarusian Kristina Tsimanouskaya receives Polish citizenship

Belarusian Olympic runner Kristina Tsimanouskaya, who made headlines after the Tokyo 2020 Games when she refused to return to her country, received Polish citizenship.

Tsimanouskaya made her new nationality public on Monday, August 29, on social media.

“It is very difficult to keep silent about this for more than a month, but now it no longer makes sense,” the athlete wrote.

Tsimanouskaya received a new passport by decree of the President of Poland dated June 28, 2022.

The athlete has made no secret of her hope of competing for Poland at the Paris 2024 Olympics in two years time, but that might be complicated.

Under current rules, the International Athletics Federation requires at least three years to pass before an athlete can compete internationally for their new country.

Some experts have begun to speculate that “political circumstances” in the case could be mitigating for Tsimanouskaya.

On September 11, 2021, Tsimanouskaya in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, announced she had applied for Polish citizenship.

The sprinter arrived in Poland on August 4, 2021 from Tokyo, preceded by a strong international media campaign after refusing to return to Minsk.

According to her own statements, after a conflict with those responsible for athletics and the heads of her delegation at the Olympic Games, she was ordered to return to Belarus. She had already spread the dispute on social media, which, in her opinion, caused the government’s discomfort.

Tsimanouskaya criticized the coaching staff’s actions, saying she was forced into the 4×400m relay without warning, when she was a short-distance specialist.

The National Olympic Committee said doctors had suggested Tsimanouskaya be sent home because of her emotional and psychological state.

At Tokyo’s Narita Airport, she did not board the plane to Minsk and requested the help of the Japanese police and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Poland granted her a humanitarian visa while the IOC opened an investigation and expelled two Belarusian coaches from the Olympic Village.

The runner lives in Warsaw with her husband, who managed to leave Belarus via Ukraine last year.

On social media she said she participated for the first time in the Polish club championship. She was on the 100m podium and her team placed second overall.

“These were my first official competitions, in which I participated not as a Belarusian, but as a Pole,” she said.

She continued, “I am extremely happy to represent my club and finally go to competitions freely, unfortunately not as a Belarusian, but sometimes you have to sacrifice something to get back on the podium.”