Poland grants humanitarian visa to Belarus Olympic athlete: Official

TOKYO/WARSAW

Poland has granted a humanitarian visa to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian Olympic athlete who claimed her team tried to force her to leave Japan, Poland's deputy foreign minister said on Aug. 2.    

Tsimanouskaya "is already in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo. She has received a humanitarian visa. Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career," Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter.

Tsimanouskaya's husband told AFP earlier that she will likely travel to Poland adding he himself had left Belarus.     

"She will likely go to Poland," Arseny Zdanevich told AFP from the Ukrainian capital Kiev where he said he had fled to. He also said that he was hoping to join his wife "in the near future."    

The 24-year-old sprinter spent the night in a Japanese airport hotel after asking Tokyo Olympics officials to help her avoid being put on a flight back to Belarus.

She was supposed to be in the Olympic Stadium on Aug. 2, competing in the 200 metres heats, but was instead the subject of intense diplomatic wrangling over her future.    

Zdanevich said that he was currently in Kiev after fleeing Belarus.     

"I believe it would not be safe for me to be there [in Belarus]," the 25-year-old fitness trainer told AFP by phone.     

He said he had not spoken to his wife since the morning and that he was hoping to join her soon.     

Zdanevich said he had lived in Poland before.    

Poland was one of several countries that offered Tsimanouskaya asylum.     

The Czech Republic and Slovenia have also said they were ready to welcome the athlete.       

Japanese and International Olympic Committee officials said the athlete was safe and was communicating with authorities.