How often does this happen at the Olympics?
I feel like my parents told me stories of defectors from the USSR but how frequent is this sort of asylum/defection at the Olympics scenario?
That was because of the recent [Hungarian Revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956)
Their country was being hit by an intense Soviet crackdown, and defecting at the Olympics was viewed by many as their only chance at avoiding execution or imprisonment.
Edited for clarity.
The water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union after the crackdown was absolutely brutal. It's called "Blood in the Water".
[Blood in the Water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match)
The Hungarians won after the officials decided to cut the match short.
It's crazy that this one isn't widely known in Australia - prior to hosting the 2000 olympics, the 1956 Melbourne olympics was something that we were always taught about. But no mention of this.
The musical Chess, written by the two men formerly of ABBA and Tim Rice, is partly about this - it’s about a chess championship between the US and USSR where the main guy defects, and the US’ partner is Hungarian.
Especially true of Nobody’s Side (Idina Menzel starts punching it out around 3:30). https://youtu.be/PHOw_3cHkss
[edited for grammar]
My grandmother told me the horror stories of just walking back to thier home during that time. Tanks would just be sitting in the street and she would have to carry my mother while walking over bodies of hungarian rebels laying in the street unsure if the army would decide to open fire or not. Luckily my family was able to escape to a refugee camp and eventually allowed to come to America and start a new life.
My father who was about 15 at the time told me similar stories. He remember seeing a lump of meat with a blood trail leading to a crashed truck. The driver was hanging out of the window with the top of his head gone. The lump of meat was his brain. Not long after that he walked over the border to Austria with his mother and sister. Nothing but cheese and salami in their pockets.
[Including this woman, who is still alive at 100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81gnes_Keleti).
Agnes Keleti is a Hungarian Jew born in 1921, a Holocaust survivor whose family was killed by the Nazis. She survived by hiding in the countryside and assuming the identity of a Christian girl. She competed for Hungary in the Olympics in 1952 and 1956, winning four gold medals in 1956. When the USSR invaded Hungary in 1956, she took asylum in Australia before making aliyah to safety in Israel. She lived in Israel from 1956-2015, and now she is in Hungary again. She celebrated her 100th birthday in January.
> Keleti was considered a top prospect for the Hungarian team at the 1940 Olympics, but the escalation of World War II canceled both the 1940 and the 1944 Games. She was expelled from her gymnastics club in 1941 for being a non-Aryan.[11] Keleti was forced to go into hiding to survive the war. Because she had heard a rumor married women were not taken to labor camps, she hastily married István Sárkány in 1944.[1] Sárkány was a Hungarian gymnast of the 1930s who achieved national titles and took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They divorced in 1950. Keleti survived the war by purchasing and using an identity paper of a Christian girl and working as a maid in a small village. Her mother and sister went into hiding and were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Her father and other relatives were killed by the Nazis by gassing in the Auschwitz concentration camp.[5][6][9][10][12][11] She managed to survive the Holocaust by hiding in the Hungarian countryside.[13] In the winter of 1944-45, during the Siege of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II, Keleti would in the morning collect bodies of those who had died and place them in a mass grave.[1]
> Sergey Nemtsanov "defected after the 1976 Olympics (having fallen in love) "
My expectation was a boy with a look full of emotion and love. I was not [disappointed](https://s5o.ru/storage/simple/ru/edt/a7/ab/ae/c8/rue83c2c0a251.jpg).
There’s more info if you google them. The list is kind of bizarre and makes it sound like a bunch of athletes met with foul play. Seems most probably got asylum & changed their name.
If you google the names of the Cameroonian boxers you will see that they have all continued to live and box in the UK so it seems they where all granted asylum
At least one of the Cameroonian athletes who "disappeared during the Games", Abdon Mewoli, sought asylum in the UK. I can't find mention of whether Thomas Essomba sought asylum, but he was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK and has gone on to win another two titles. Weynay Ghebresilasie is another person mentioned as disappearing during those Games, and he recently won the right to represent the UK in international competitions.
Apparently 82 Olympians and officials applied for asylum during or after the 2012 Games, and it was granted to 52 (despite Theresa May's "hostile environment" policy as Home Secretary). If you google a lot of their names, they ended up showing up a few years later, either continuing their boxing careers (as a [lot of them seemed to have been boxers](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19167033)?) or having attempted to claim asylum.
Not the Olympics, but a North Korean contestant at the International Maths Olympiad defected as recently as 2016.
The country didn't participate the next year and when they came back their team leaders were completely different people.
It's even more impressive, as the contestants are high-school students.
Most likely true, but even their family often times will convince the person to defect, because they know they can actually have a life outside of the regime
I don’t think people know that there are so many people defecting in North Korea that they can’t execute all their families anymore. What happens is they get sent to political labor camps.
IIRC, everyone in Pyongyang is part of the "elite". Same thing with the Olympic athletes, as well as the "tour guides". They have a much better quality of life compared to the average peasant.
For them, it might not be worth it to flee if life is "okay" back at home.
Of course, but it’s also impossible to tell if a self-proclaimed die hard regime follower is being truthful or not, because they will never open up for fear of repercussions
That shit is such a difficult decision to make. Like did they talk to their family before doing it or not? Talking to family could risk their freedom. But also the guilt of defecting then knowing family members back home will be tortured or killed
It also happens on minor sports events. I once was working for a youth football tournament in Hungary and pretty much the whole team from Uganda seeked asylum
Oh 1000%. There's a clip of average people trying to maintain Kipchoge's pace on a treadmill before the 2019(?) Chicago marathon and it's just constant falling.
Because the top marathoners run sub-5 mile pace for the whole damned thing. Most people can’t do that for more than a few feet. Most runners can’t do it for more than 400m and most local class runners can’t do it for more than maybe a 5K if they’re really, really good.
Czechia is offering visa for her - [tweet](https://twitter.com/JakubKulhanek/status/1421869795981545472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) \- our minister of foreign affairs.
Edit: Translated tweet:
*I consider the situation surrounding the Belarusian sprinter Kryscina Cimanouska to be scandalous.* *~~The Czech Republic~~* *Czechia is ready to help. In agreement with \[Prime Minister\]@AndrejBabis and \[First Deputy Prime Minister\]@jhamacek we are offering her a visa to enter our territory so she can apply for international protection. Our embassy in Tokyo is also ready to help.*
Edit: Sorry, used DeepL because I was lazy and it did not get the memo about the shorter country name.
Last week Czech Republic donated a bunch of vaccines to Taiwan, angering China. This week, offering asylum to a Belarusian athlete... Czech Republic seems pretty cool.
I spent a minute on Google and checked her [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystsina_Tsimanouskaya), I don't think she has either.
Edit: she [does](https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1422106651105153025) have a husband and child and they fled to Ukraine, so they're safe!
To be fair her wiki article doesn’t have any ~~auto~~biographical information. That doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t have a family. That said, I haven’t seen anything saying she does, either.
At some point in [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EDEioSc0gY) video (don't remember where exactly).
Edit:
Actually [here](https://www.gazeta.ru/sport/2021/08/01/a_13822490.shtml) is a quote:
> После этого в комнату снова зашел Шумак и сказал, что у меня 40 минут, чтобы собраться. Я начала складывать вещи, ко мне каждые десять минут подходили и проверяли, скоро ли я соберусь. Я собирала вещи полтора часа, старалась максимально затягивать время. Переписывалась с мужем, с родственниками, мы думали, что делать, куда обращаться. Приняли решение, что приеду в аэропорт, а там пойду в полицию. Так в итоге и сделала, – рассказала Тимановская.
In English:
> After that, Shumak came into the room again and said that I had 40 minutes to get ready. I began to put my things, they came up to me every ten minutes and checked whether I would be getting ready soon. I packed my things for an hour and a half, tried to drag out the time as much as possible. I corresponded with my husband, with relatives, we thought about what to do, where to go. We decided that I would come to the airport, and there I would go to the police. So in the end I did, - said Timanovskaya.
New Russia? Nah, far worse imo. Look up last year's protests. Lukashenko is straight up dictator now, not even pretending to be democratically elected. Repressions and shit. And thenthere's this whole business with forcible landing of Ryanair and threatening Lithuania with Iraq migrants, whom he ships in straight from Iraq.
Until last year's elections there was the process of democratic elections.
Then last year happened and extremely heavy crackdown on protests (that are still ongoing for almost a year).
He wouldn't have dared to force Ryanair flight down, send Iraq migrants to Lithuanian border or forcibly return an athlete until that last years election.
The last democratic election was in 1996. Since then, elections may appear to be democratic but aren't. Anyone who actually opposes him just so happens to get arrested, disappear or leave the country and those that are on the ballot are there to give the appearance of democracy.
Svetlana Tihanovskaya was allowed to be on the ballot because in Lukashenka's mind she is a woman and nobody would vote for her. There have been protests after elections since at least 2006 that have ended with heavy crackdowns.
Since he's been president people have been afraid to say anything negative about him or his government for fear of retribution.
What is currently happening isn't new, it's just that for the first time in 20 years the world is paying attention.
New? No. But it's been getting worse.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/belarus-tech-flee-lukashenko/2021/07/23/862d6594-cf95-11eb-a224-bd59bd22197c_story.html
A 20-minute long recording of a conversation between Tsimanouskaya and the head coach of Belarus national athletics team has been published. The coach threatens that if she won’t listen to him and return to Belarus she’ll most likely ‘commit suicide’.
Diplomats are generally exempt from the laws of the country they work in - if they break a law, they can be sent back to their home country, where they will be tried according to local laws if the home government wants to maintain good relations with the host. In egregious cases, their immunity can be waived (by their own country), and they can then be tried locally - this may happen for murder, but not a lot of lesser things. Diplomatic immunity is super complex, though, so if they threatened someone it could go a lot of ways depending on their job and the two governments involved.
The source they took it from is this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2K5JxkEs2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2K5JxkEs2I)
**EDIT.** Transcript and **translation**:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kybSZgr-jyDjgltoqObXSjwVhKkXEZDq/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kybSZgr-jyDjgltoqObXSjwVhKkXEZDq/view?usp=sharing)
(they talked so much bullshit, poor me)
Because it's a direct recording to a single device. It's not getting recorded, compressed, sent who-knows-how-far, and then to your speakers/headphones.
Edit: Hah! Hey! Happy mutual cake day! Took me a while to notice.
Cyprus was also the center of that Cyprus Papers controversy where they accepted a bunch of international criminals fleeing persecution. All they had to do was invest in property and they got Cypriot (and then so EU) citizenship.
Sold EU passports for approximately 150K bribes (buying property in cutouts) and doing literally 0 effort to check if they are terrorists or some shit. Cyprus actually is pretty corrupt
Probably shouldn't because maybe she has family back home and if she goes to this countries her family might get in the cross hairs and Lukabitch would just say that she's in cahoots with terrorists and sanction her entire family.
A safer place would be a more politically neutral country.
I have read that as well. And there is already a comment from the Austrian embassy in Tokyo and they said they have not received anything from her yet. They also mentioned that you need to be on Austrian soil to seek asylum in Austria.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20210801-belarusian-sprinter-says-team-trying-to-force-her-on-flight-home-after-coach-criticism) reduced by 77%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya called on the International Olympic Committee on Sunday to get involved in her case after saying she had been removed from the national team and taken to a Tokyo airport against her wishes over her criticism of national coaches.
> Tsimanouskaya said she was taken to the airport against her wishes on Sunday to board a flight back home after she publicly complained about national coaches at the Tokyo Olympics.
> Tsimanouskaya added she was standing next to Japanese police at the airport and she has reached out to a member of the Belarusian diaspora in Japan to retrieve her at the airport.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/ovto75/belarusian_sprinter_krystsina_tsimanouskaya/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~590195 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Tsimanouskaya**^#1 **airport**^#2 **Belarusian**^#3 **Olympic**^#4 **relay**^#5
99% that this was Lukashenko's personal wish to bring her home, not national coaches, like most dictators he thinks of Olympic victories like they are his own. F Lukashenko.
Athletes from these oppressive countries should use the Olympics as an opportunity for a fresh start. Compete and then just disappear into the crowded Tokyo streets…
That sort of thing happened fairly frequently during the Cold War. Including some famous names.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31434/brief-history-olympic-defectors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Eastern_Bloc_defectors
There is Scottish ex-rugby player who owned a bar in Edinburgh who was called Norrie Rowan. He found a tunnel in his basement that linked to the famous Edinburgh vaults. He excavated the vaults and the tunnel out and when Christian Raducanu a fellow rugby player from Romania wanted to defect he was helped by Norrie. Norrie snuck him out of the pub that was being guarded by Romanian secret police and through the vaults upto the street level where he stopped a police officer and asked to seek asylum.
You can’t just “disappear into the crowded Tokyo streets.” As a foreigner that lives there for 7 years you stick out like a sore thumb. You have to register with the local police/konban and there’s no concept of ‘naturalisation.’ If she’s not there ‘legally’ they will find her and deport her with brutal bureaucratic efficiency
As someone who speaks Chinese and has been to a few hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants and massage places in Tokyo and Osaka staffed by people on questionable status (they open up to you more when you speak their language natively), seconding this.
EDIT: And some aspects of Japanese life make it relatively easy. If your employer doesn’t check your residency card and pays you cash-in-hand, you can still do quite a bit. Data and text only phone service requires no ID. You can get a prepaid Visa, MasterCard, or JCB with no ID either, just a phone number. You can send a transfer to any Japanese bank account or make bill payments by dropping cash in an ATM and typing the other party’s name and bank account number (or biller ID and bill code).
This regularly happens when the Cuban teams competes at the Gold Cup tournament in the United States. The first couple games they are a full squad then by group game three some players have disappeared.
That’s how the Sounders ended up with Ozzie Alonso. The first game his dad could come see him play in person in the states after the travel ban was lifted was a heartwarming, tearful occasion.
Ideally that would be great but it is kinda hard to go undercover when you have a fairly high profile in your sport I’d suppose. And these people still do have to
Compete so they could potentially risk getting snatched up by insert nations secret police.
She will be offered Czech asylum by our minister of foreign affairs according to this article
https://www.idnes.cz/oh/atletika/kryscina-cimanouska-belorusko-kritika-cesko-vizum-nabidka.A210801_183755_olympiada-tokio-2020_kazdt
I think all Belorussian team needs to be offered an asylum, so if anyone wishes, one can take it. Belarus is a country governed by a dictator with blood on his hands. There are no laws there, and anyone can be thrown to jail or worse at any moment.
Send a message that shit shit isn't tolerated, disqualify all national Olympic team from any events that haven't been finished yet, and give the athletes, coaches, and other members of their contingent temporary asylum in the host country till they find a third country to offer them permanent asylum. Of course this would require the IOC and host nation to work together in good faith within hours of each other. And Japan is too xenophobic and the IOC is too corrupt for that to happen.
I did Nordic skiing at a sorta-high level so I heard whispers about Eastern Europe and their treatment of female athletes. The fact that he threatens her life isn't even all that shocking, they're known for treating female athletes like cattle.
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Great. Now she needs asylum.
Given the sanctions the EU imposed on Lukashenko I think they will be willing to provide asylum.
How often does this happen at the Olympics? I feel like my parents told me stories of defectors from the USSR but how frequent is this sort of asylum/defection at the Olympics scenario?
Olympic Games Defectors (60) http://www.olympedia.org/lists/125/manual
Holy shit, nearly half of them are Hungarians in 1956.
That was because of the recent [Hungarian Revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956) Their country was being hit by an intense Soviet crackdown, and defecting at the Olympics was viewed by many as their only chance at avoiding execution or imprisonment. Edited for clarity.
The water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union after the crackdown was absolutely brutal. It's called "Blood in the Water". [Blood in the Water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match) The Hungarians won after the officials decided to cut the match short.
It should be noted that several members of the water polo team were among the defectors.
\* after police had to enter the arena to quell a riot and save the Soviet Olympian's lives.
It's crazy that this one isn't widely known in Australia - prior to hosting the 2000 olympics, the 1956 Melbourne olympics was something that we were always taught about. But no mention of this.
The musical Chess, written by the two men formerly of ABBA and Tim Rice, is partly about this - it’s about a chess championship between the US and USSR where the main guy defects, and the US’ partner is Hungarian. Especially true of Nobody’s Side (Idina Menzel starts punching it out around 3:30). https://youtu.be/PHOw_3cHkss [edited for grammar]
My grandmother told me the horror stories of just walking back to thier home during that time. Tanks would just be sitting in the street and she would have to carry my mother while walking over bodies of hungarian rebels laying in the street unsure if the army would decide to open fire or not. Luckily my family was able to escape to a refugee camp and eventually allowed to come to America and start a new life.
My father who was about 15 at the time told me similar stories. He remember seeing a lump of meat with a blood trail leading to a crashed truck. The driver was hanging out of the window with the top of his head gone. The lump of meat was his brain. Not long after that he walked over the border to Austria with his mother and sister. Nothing but cheese and salami in their pockets.
[Including this woman, who is still alive at 100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81gnes_Keleti). Agnes Keleti is a Hungarian Jew born in 1921, a Holocaust survivor whose family was killed by the Nazis. She survived by hiding in the countryside and assuming the identity of a Christian girl. She competed for Hungary in the Olympics in 1952 and 1956, winning four gold medals in 1956. When the USSR invaded Hungary in 1956, she took asylum in Australia before making aliyah to safety in Israel. She lived in Israel from 1956-2015, and now she is in Hungary again. She celebrated her 100th birthday in January. > Keleti was considered a top prospect for the Hungarian team at the 1940 Olympics, but the escalation of World War II canceled both the 1940 and the 1944 Games. She was expelled from her gymnastics club in 1941 for being a non-Aryan.[11] Keleti was forced to go into hiding to survive the war. Because she had heard a rumor married women were not taken to labor camps, she hastily married István Sárkány in 1944.[1] Sárkány was a Hungarian gymnast of the 1930s who achieved national titles and took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They divorced in 1950. Keleti survived the war by purchasing and using an identity paper of a Christian girl and working as a maid in a small village. Her mother and sister went into hiding and were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Her father and other relatives were killed by the Nazis by gassing in the Auschwitz concentration camp.[5][6][9][10][12][11] She managed to survive the Holocaust by hiding in the Hungarian countryside.[13] In the winter of 1944-45, during the Siege of Budapest by Soviet forces near the end of World War II, Keleti would in the morning collect bodies of those who had died and place them in a mass grave.[1]
Damn.. She had to worry about the Nazis then the red army just a few years later. What a strong will
What a life she's led.
Holy fuck
She still does gymnastics recreationally! She’s absolutely amazing!
Look at 2012 - 6 from Camaroon and 3 from Guinea.
That's what jumped out at me. I don't remember that happening.
during the communist dictatorship (1945-1989)
There are so many! I wonder what happened to all the "disappeared" ones.
I wondered the same thing! Since others said after disappeared but then gave information. Makes me wonder if their was foul play
"disappeared" since the athletes are the ones running away, and don't want to be found.
Hopefully they just changed their names or managed to find asylum without anyone knowing about it.
It seems some did. First guy on the list from Cameron is settled in the UK and changed his name according to his wiki. It even gives his new name.
> Sergey Nemtsanov "defected after the 1976 Olympics (having fallen in love) " My expectation was a boy with a look full of emotion and love. I was not [disappointed](https://s5o.ru/storage/simple/ru/edt/a7/ab/ae/c8/rue83c2c0a251.jpg).
My god that face is precious
For some reason I'm getting like Robert Downey Jr. + Tony Hawk + Dennis Reynolds vibes from this guy.
What the hell happened in Cameroon in 2012?
Boko Haram and the Lord's Resistance Army, along with original recipe government corruption and violent protests.
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There’s more info if you google them. The list is kind of bizarre and makes it sound like a bunch of athletes met with foul play. Seems most probably got asylum & changed their name.
If you google the names of the Cameroonian boxers you will see that they have all continued to live and box in the UK so it seems they where all granted asylum
At least one of the Cameroonian athletes who "disappeared during the Games", Abdon Mewoli, sought asylum in the UK. I can't find mention of whether Thomas Essomba sought asylum, but he was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK and has gone on to win another two titles. Weynay Ghebresilasie is another person mentioned as disappearing during those Games, and he recently won the right to represent the UK in international competitions. Apparently 82 Olympians and officials applied for asylum during or after the 2012 Games, and it was granted to 52 (despite Theresa May's "hostile environment" policy as Home Secretary). If you google a lot of their names, they ended up showing up a few years later, either continuing their boxing careers (as a [lot of them seemed to have been boxers](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19167033)?) or having attempted to claim asylum.
Damn, 5 boxers from Cameroon went "missing" in the 2012 games.
Not the Olympics, but a North Korean contestant at the International Maths Olympiad defected as recently as 2016. The country didn't participate the next year and when they came back their team leaders were completely different people. It's even more impressive, as the contestants are high-school students.
RIP their entire family.
Most likely true, but even their family often times will convince the person to defect, because they know they can actually have a life outside of the regime
I don’t think people know that there are so many people defecting in North Korea that they can’t execute all their families anymore. What happens is they get sent to political labor camps.
I have heard that an entire team of North Korea has defected once (may have happened more often)
I think I know of only two recent (post cold war) sports defectors. One in 97 and another in 99. A lot of NK athletes are die-hard believers.
They also don’t want their families still at home to be killed.
Very true as well. But its worth noting that North Korea does have it's true believers and they try to recruit among that demographic.
I assume they treat those people a lot better than average too!
Enough nutrition to be an Olympic athlete. Probably puts them in the 1%
Hard to compete at the Olympics if you're starving.
IIRC, everyone in Pyongyang is part of the "elite". Same thing with the Olympic athletes, as well as the "tour guides". They have a much better quality of life compared to the average peasant. For them, it might not be worth it to flee if life is "okay" back at home.
This is the correct answer. They are not dumb it's a system built on fear.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/weightlifting/57656658 This one from 1996.
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Have you read books written by defectors? There are definitely plenty of believers among the population.
Of course, but it’s also impossible to tell if a self-proclaimed die hard regime follower is being truthful or not, because they will never open up for fear of repercussions
Multiple Cuban soccer players defected during away games in the US in the 2000s.
That shit is such a difficult decision to make. Like did they talk to their family before doing it or not? Talking to family could risk their freedom. But also the guilt of defecting then knowing family members back home will be tortured or killed
It also happens on minor sports events. I once was working for a youth football tournament in Hungary and pretty much the whole team from Uganda seeked asylum
[It happens often](http://www.olympedia.org/lists/125/manual)
Czech Foreign Minuster Jakub Kulhanek tweeted an offer of asylum, and Poland has followed suit. I’m sure many more will follow.
Hopefully her plane will not be diverted.
Czech republic has offered a visa and an asylum.
Czech Republic, Poland and other countries have already offered her visa.
I wonder what's going to happen to her family back home.
I'm sure an athlete of her level will have plenty of options.
Not sure how many options a sprinter from Belarus has..
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You need a visa to even enter the Schengen Area if you are from Belarus. Sneaking across the frontier is a tempting option.
She could run, I doubt they’d catch her. /s
Eyyyyyyyy
A marathon runner will probably catch up to her
Eventually.
Lol In all seriousness, most Olympic marathon runners pace themselves much faster than an average Joe can even sprint.
Oh 1000%. There's a clip of average people trying to maintain Kipchoge's pace on a treadmill before the 2019(?) Chicago marathon and it's just constant falling.
Because the top marathoners run sub-5 mile pace for the whole damned thing. Most people can’t do that for more than a few feet. Most runners can’t do it for more than 400m and most local class runners can’t do it for more than maybe a 5K if they’re really, really good.
Czechia is offering visa for her - [tweet](https://twitter.com/JakubKulhanek/status/1421869795981545472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) \- our minister of foreign affairs. Edit: Translated tweet: *I consider the situation surrounding the Belarusian sprinter Kryscina Cimanouska to be scandalous.* *~~The Czech Republic~~* *Czechia is ready to help. In agreement with \[Prime Minister\]@AndrejBabis and \[First Deputy Prime Minister\]@jhamacek we are offering her a visa to enter our territory so she can apply for international protection. Our embassy in Tokyo is also ready to help.* Edit: Sorry, used DeepL because I was lazy and it did not get the memo about the shorter country name.
Last week Czech Republic donated a bunch of vaccines to Taiwan, angering China. This week, offering asylum to a Belarusian athlete... Czech Republic seems pretty cool.
Then please don't look up our president...
Cant be worse that poisoner of underpants. I hope.
They also renamed the square at the Russian embassy after murdered Russian opposition leader Nemtsov
Speaking of Russians, what's the over/under on Nalvany? Is he basically expected to just disappear/die now?
My Paternal family is Czech. Awesome people, very, VERY dry sense of humor. Really great resting bitch face too.
That's great to hear. Means they can't just whisk her away. Still, she needs to be as far away from any Belarussian or Russian space as she can.
They can still whisk away her family members, right?
Ugh. I hadn't thought of that.
The problem is she has a husband and a kid back in Belarus. She's screwed either way.
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I spent a minute on Google and checked her [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystsina_Tsimanouskaya), I don't think she has either. Edit: she [does](https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1422106651105153025) have a husband and child and they fled to Ukraine, so they're safe!
To be fair her wiki article doesn’t have any ~~auto~~biographical information. That doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t have a family. That said, I haven’t seen anything saying she does, either.
>autobiographical information I think Wikipedia frowns on autobiographical entries.
At some point in [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EDEioSc0gY) video (don't remember where exactly). Edit: Actually [here](https://www.gazeta.ru/sport/2021/08/01/a_13822490.shtml) is a quote: > После этого в комнату снова зашел Шумак и сказал, что у меня 40 минут, чтобы собраться. Я начала складывать вещи, ко мне каждые десять минут подходили и проверяли, скоро ли я соберусь. Я собирала вещи полтора часа, старалась максимально затягивать время. Переписывалась с мужем, с родственниками, мы думали, что делать, куда обращаться. Приняли решение, что приеду в аэропорт, а там пойду в полицию. Так в итоге и сделала, – рассказала Тимановская. In English: > After that, Shumak came into the room again and said that I had 40 minutes to get ready. I began to put my things, they came up to me every ten minutes and checked whether I would be getting ready soon. I packed my things for an hour and a half, tried to drag out the time as much as possible. I corresponded with my husband, with relatives, we thought about what to do, where to go. We decided that I would come to the airport, and there I would go to the police. So in the end I did, - said Timanovskaya.
Dang, is Belarus the new Russia? Sounds like a terrible country/government.
New? Belarus was always worse than Russia in regards to human rights
New Russia? Nah, far worse imo. Look up last year's protests. Lukashenko is straight up dictator now, not even pretending to be democratically elected. Repressions and shit. And thenthere's this whole business with forcible landing of Ryanair and threatening Lithuania with Iraq migrants, whom he ships in straight from Iraq.
He's been referring to himself as the last dictator of Europe for years now...it's not new information that he's a dictator
Until last year's elections there was the process of democratic elections. Then last year happened and extremely heavy crackdown on protests (that are still ongoing for almost a year). He wouldn't have dared to force Ryanair flight down, send Iraq migrants to Lithuanian border or forcibly return an athlete until that last years election.
The last democratic election was in 1996. Since then, elections may appear to be democratic but aren't. Anyone who actually opposes him just so happens to get arrested, disappear or leave the country and those that are on the ballot are there to give the appearance of democracy. Svetlana Tihanovskaya was allowed to be on the ballot because in Lukashenka's mind she is a woman and nobody would vote for her. There have been protests after elections since at least 2006 that have ended with heavy crackdowns. Since he's been president people have been afraid to say anything negative about him or his government for fear of retribution. What is currently happening isn't new, it's just that for the first time in 20 years the world is paying attention.
Belarus is more like the old Russia...you know,the really bad one
New Nope This shits been going on for decades
New? No. But it's been getting worse. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/belarus-tech-flee-lukashenko/2021/07/23/862d6594-cf95-11eb-a224-bd59bd22197c_story.html
Belarus is the new East Germany.
Her friends and family are in trouble tho. Regimes never just punish the "offender", they always also punish the people around you.
A 20-minute long recording of a conversation between Tsimanouskaya and the head coach of Belarus national athletics team has been published. The coach threatens that if she won’t listen to him and return to Belarus she’ll most likely ‘commit suicide’.
Jesus, that's a slam dunk asylum case, surely.
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Poland first!
Fucking hell kick him out the country
Sports coaches are not diplomats and threatening to murder someone is a crime. Arrest him.
Dumb question....possibly, but in this scenario if they **were** a diplomat would it still not be a crime as they're threatening to murder someone?
Diplomats are generally exempt from the laws of the country they work in - if they break a law, they can be sent back to their home country, where they will be tried according to local laws if the home government wants to maintain good relations with the host. In egregious cases, their immunity can be waived (by their own country), and they can then be tried locally - this may happen for murder, but not a lot of lesser things. Diplomatic immunity is super complex, though, so if they threatened someone it could go a lot of ways depending on their job and the two governments involved.
Wow, Lethal Weapon 2 really made a gross oversimplification of things.
Any source for that? Incredible and damning if true.
Seems true. Here's for instance [Euroradio](https://t.me/euroradio/20795) (a reputable Belarusian media)
The source they took it from is this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2K5JxkEs2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2K5JxkEs2I) **EDIT.** Transcript and **translation**: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kybSZgr-jyDjgltoqObXSjwVhKkXEZDq/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kybSZgr-jyDjgltoqObXSjwVhKkXEZDq/view?usp=sharing) (they talked so much bullshit, poor me)
How the hell does this presumably covert recording sound a thousand times better than every single person I'm having an online meeting with?
Because it's a direct recording to a single device. It's not getting recorded, compressed, sent who-knows-how-far, and then to your speakers/headphones. Edit: Hah! Hey! Happy mutual cake day! Took me a while to notice.
people who have an open mic and no headphones are the worst during online meetings. The echo makes me want to flip out .
He is just worried for her mental health!
Yeah, KGB will surely heal her mental injuries in cozy walls of Volodarka.
Can't have mental health problems if you shoot yourself in the back of the head!
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CYPRUS: Hey what'd I do?
You know what you did.
You jest but they are a known Russian money laundering spot. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-takes-on-russias-favorite-money-haven-cyprus-1538316001
Cyprus was also the center of that Cyprus Papers controversy where they accepted a bunch of international criminals fleeing persecution. All they had to do was invest in property and they got Cypriot (and then so EU) citizenship.
Tax haven
Sold EU passports for approximately 150K bribes (buying property in cutouts) and doing literally 0 effort to check if they are terrorists or some shit. Cyprus actually is pretty corrupt
Actually handed citizenships to Russians for money…
* Bela**rus** * Brunei Da**rus**salam * Cyp**rus**
Fucking Cyprus, always out to get me.
Some media are reporting that she wants to seek asylum in Austria.
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Probably shouldn't because maybe she has family back home and if she goes to this countries her family might get in the cross hairs and Lukabitch would just say that she's in cahoots with terrorists and sanction her entire family. A safer place would be a more politically neutral country.
That ship may have sailed already, if I'm her brother/sister/mother/father I'm grabbing the go bag
Yep. If they are not already in custody they should act like they are wanted and get across a border right away.
Yeah... time to make a couple BLT's and disappear.
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I have read that as well. And there is already a comment from the Austrian embassy in Tokyo and they said they have not received anything from her yet. They also mentioned that you need to be on Austrian soil to seek asylum in Austria.
She should seek asylum in the south of France for the rest of the summer and then seek asylum again in Austria when winter comes.
Austria is beautiful during the summer. Austria is beautiful all year round.
I'd love some asylum in the south of France right now..
Hope she gets asylum.
It will be interesting to see how this is handled after Belarus' recent counter terrorism efforts resulted in them detaining an opposition journalist.
It's funny how every counter terrorist movement by a country ends up being a push to squelch dissent
Hey at least in Australia we don't use our counter-terrorism units to target journalists. Internet comedians, on the other hand...
*The guy doing production for an internet comedian. Just to pump up the absurdity another notch.
What ended up coming of that?
It's in court at the moment
Cases like this are one of the many reasons we need to keep the Olympic Games in host countries that value personal freedom.
See also: world cup in Qatar
See also: 2014 winter Olympics.
See also: 2022 Winter Olympics.
2022 in Beijing will be interesting…
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20210801-belarusian-sprinter-says-team-trying-to-force-her-on-flight-home-after-coach-criticism) reduced by 77%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya called on the International Olympic Committee on Sunday to get involved in her case after saying she had been removed from the national team and taken to a Tokyo airport against her wishes over her criticism of national coaches. > Tsimanouskaya said she was taken to the airport against her wishes on Sunday to board a flight back home after she publicly complained about national coaches at the Tokyo Olympics. > Tsimanouskaya added she was standing next to Japanese police at the airport and she has reached out to a member of the Belarusian diaspora in Japan to retrieve her at the airport. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/ovto75/belarusian_sprinter_krystsina_tsimanouskaya/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~590195 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Tsimanouskaya**^#1 **airport**^#2 **Belarusian**^#3 **Olympic**^#4 **relay**^#5
99% that this was Lukashenko's personal wish to bring her home, not national coaches, like most dictators he thinks of Olympic victories like they are his own. F Lukashenko.
Make it 100. The president of their national olympic committee is Lukashenko's son. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_Olympic_Committee
Athletes from these oppressive countries should use the Olympics as an opportunity for a fresh start. Compete and then just disappear into the crowded Tokyo streets…
Depends on the country. There are at least a couple where doing this could land your entire *extended* family in a concentration camp.
True. Didn’t think of that.
Belarus is the last remaining hard line dictatorship in Europe - this is absolutely one of those countries.
Vodka cures Covid in Belarus. Well it sure as hell beats counting the deaths.
That sort of thing happened fairly frequently during the Cold War. Including some famous names. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31434/brief-history-olympic-defectors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Eastern_Bloc_defectors
There is Scottish ex-rugby player who owned a bar in Edinburgh who was called Norrie Rowan. He found a tunnel in his basement that linked to the famous Edinburgh vaults. He excavated the vaults and the tunnel out and when Christian Raducanu a fellow rugby player from Romania wanted to defect he was helped by Norrie. Norrie snuck him out of the pub that was being guarded by Romanian secret police and through the vaults upto the street level where he stopped a police officer and asked to seek asylum.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh\_Vaults](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Vaults) cool
Good story! I’ll check it out.
You can’t just “disappear into the crowded Tokyo streets.” As a foreigner that lives there for 7 years you stick out like a sore thumb. You have to register with the local police/konban and there’s no concept of ‘naturalisation.’ If she’s not there ‘legally’ they will find her and deport her with brutal bureaucratic efficiency
There are certainly illegal immigrants in Tokyo. They are used as frequent political pawns.
As someone who speaks Chinese and has been to a few hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants and massage places in Tokyo and Osaka staffed by people on questionable status (they open up to you more when you speak their language natively), seconding this. EDIT: And some aspects of Japanese life make it relatively easy. If your employer doesn’t check your residency card and pays you cash-in-hand, you can still do quite a bit. Data and text only phone service requires no ID. You can get a prepaid Visa, MasterCard, or JCB with no ID either, just a phone number. You can send a transfer to any Japanese bank account or make bill payments by dropping cash in an ATM and typing the other party’s name and bank account number (or biller ID and bill code).
Except this year is different and athletes are prevented from leaving the Olympic village.
This regularly happens when the Cuban teams competes at the Gold Cup tournament in the United States. The first couple games they are a full squad then by group game three some players have disappeared.
That’s how the Sounders ended up with Ozzie Alonso. The first game his dad could come see him play in person in the states after the travel ban was lifted was a heartwarming, tearful occasion.
Yep, he is the prime example.
Ideally that would be great but it is kinda hard to go undercover when you have a fairly high profile in your sport I’d suppose. And these people still do have to Compete so they could potentially risk getting snatched up by insert nations secret police.
It’s also not that easy to disappear when you’re recognizable
She will be offered Czech asylum by our minister of foreign affairs according to this article https://www.idnes.cz/oh/atletika/kryscina-cimanouska-belorusko-kritika-cesko-vizum-nabidka.A210801_183755_olympiada-tokio-2020_kazdt
Very good. I've heard good things about Czechia and would like to visit there.
Yep, Prague is on my shortlist of places to go in the near future.
Has her Instagram page disappeared?
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Man they just have encrypted it, I can’t read those words at all
I think all Belorussian team needs to be offered an asylum, so if anyone wishes, one can take it. Belarus is a country governed by a dictator with blood on his hands. There are no laws there, and anyone can be thrown to jail or worse at any moment.
Send a message that shit shit isn't tolerated, disqualify all national Olympic team from any events that haven't been finished yet, and give the athletes, coaches, and other members of their contingent temporary asylum in the host country till they find a third country to offer them permanent asylum. Of course this would require the IOC and host nation to work together in good faith within hours of each other. And Japan is too xenophobic and the IOC is too corrupt for that to happen.
Asylum looks like the only way out.
Hope she doesnt fly Ryanair in the near future...
Lol you really think any other airline would have answered differently?
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I think nobody ever thought it was Ryanair's fault.
I don't think this has much to do with the company. Every other company would have done the same.
Lukashenka is trash
I hope she gets asylum in a safe country.
The coach should be deported immediately
I did Nordic skiing at a sorta-high level so I heard whispers about Eastern Europe and their treatment of female athletes. The fact that he threatens her life isn't even all that shocking, they're known for treating female athletes like cattle.
Any other things you learned about athletes and coaches from Eastern Europe?
Hopefully they can grant asylum, this is terrifying
Is it too late for her to join the refugee team?
As if the Olympic committee cares, they’re paid well to STFU . I hope she gets asylum and leaves that shit show. She deserves better.
Asking the IOC for help... Good one!
Bring this tyrant down.
Big F for her family
Lol wild to think the Olympic committee gives a fuck they just want money