IOC strips two Belarus Olympic coaches of accreditation over Tsimanouskaya scandal
Andrew Roth in Moscow, The Guardian
7 August 2021, 18:47
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has expelled two Belarusian coaches who pulled sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya from the Olympic Games and tried to force her to board a flight home to Minsk.
The athletics head coach, Artur Shumak, and team official Yuri Moisevich had their accreditations rescinded and were asked to leave the Olympic village, the organisation announced in a Twitter post on Friday.
“In the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes of the [National Olympic Committee] of Belarus who are still in Tokyo and as a provisional measure, the IOC cancelled and removed last night the accreditations of the two coaches,” the organisation wrote.
Notably, the two men were allegedly heard on leaked audio where they threatened and cajoled Tsimanouskaya to cease her public criticism of the national team.
“You’re like a fly in a spiderweb: the more you jerk around, the worse you get entangled,” a voice told Tsimanouskaya on the audio. At another point, one of the men told her that excessive pride “leads to cases of suicide”.
The decision to eject the two men from the Olympic Games may indicate that the leaked audio is being viewed as genuine and could signal tougher sanctions on the way for the Belarus NOC.
“The two coaches were requested to leave the Olympic village immediately and have done so. They will be offered an opportunity to be heard,” the IOC statement said.
The statement also said an IOC disciplinary commission had been set up to “clarify the circumstances around the incident and the roles the coaches Mr Artur Shumak and Mr Yuri Moisevich played”.
“We are not the ones who made the decision, we are only executing it,” Tsimanouskaya said the two officials later told her, according to Reuters. “You have 40 minutes. You have to pack your things and go to the airport.” The decision, they said, had come from “high up”.
Tsimanouskaya had commented on Instagram about her coaching staff’s “negligence” after they failed to secure doping tests for several relay race runners and enlisted Tsimanouskaya in the race without her knowledge.
She said several coaches had then put pressure on her to feign an injury and to fly home to Minsk immediately, where she has said she felt she could face punishment or even criminal charges.
She managed to request police protection at Japan’s Haneda airport by using Google Translate and has since taken refuge in Poland, where she was issued with a humanitarian visa. Her husband also managed to flee Belarus and has been reunited with her there.
More than 35,000 people have been arrested in Belarus and hundreds have complained of torture in prison since protests began last August against its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and flawed elections that handed him a sixth successive term in power.
The Belarus NOC at the time had said coaches withdrew Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her emotional and psychological state.
Tsimanouskaya did not rule out a future return to Belarus, but said on Thursday she would only go “when it will be safe for me there”.
The saga has shown how Belarus’s crackdown has made any criticism of the country’s officials extremely dangerous, even if limited to professional questions about sport.
7 August 2021, 18:47
The athletics head coach, Artur Shumak, and team official Yuri Moisevich had their accreditations rescinded and were asked to leave the Olympic village, the organisation announced in a Twitter post on Friday.
“In the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes of the [National Olympic Committee] of Belarus who are still in Tokyo and as a provisional measure, the IOC cancelled and removed last night the accreditations of the two coaches,” the organisation wrote.
Notably, the two men were allegedly heard on leaked audio where they threatened and cajoled Tsimanouskaya to cease her public criticism of the national team.
“You’re like a fly in a spiderweb: the more you jerk around, the worse you get entangled,” a voice told Tsimanouskaya on the audio. At another point, one of the men told her that excessive pride “leads to cases of suicide”.
The decision to eject the two men from the Olympic Games may indicate that the leaked audio is being viewed as genuine and could signal tougher sanctions on the way for the Belarus NOC.
“The two coaches were requested to leave the Olympic village immediately and have done so. They will be offered an opportunity to be heard,” the IOC statement said.
The statement also said an IOC disciplinary commission had been set up to “clarify the circumstances around the incident and the roles the coaches Mr Artur Shumak and Mr Yuri Moisevich played”.
“We are not the ones who made the decision, we are only executing it,” Tsimanouskaya said the two officials later told her, according to Reuters. “You have 40 minutes. You have to pack your things and go to the airport.” The decision, they said, had come from “high up”.
Tsimanouskaya had commented on Instagram about her coaching staff’s “negligence” after they failed to secure doping tests for several relay race runners and enlisted Tsimanouskaya in the race without her knowledge.
She said several coaches had then put pressure on her to feign an injury and to fly home to Minsk immediately, where she has said she felt she could face punishment or even criminal charges.
She managed to request police protection at Japan’s Haneda airport by using Google Translate and has since taken refuge in Poland, where she was issued with a humanitarian visa. Her husband also managed to flee Belarus and has been reunited with her there.
More than 35,000 people have been arrested in Belarus and hundreds have complained of torture in prison since protests began last August against its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and flawed elections that handed him a sixth successive term in power.
The Belarus NOC at the time had said coaches withdrew Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her emotional and psychological state.
Tsimanouskaya did not rule out a future return to Belarus, but said on Thursday she would only go “when it will be safe for me there”.
The saga has shown how Belarus’s crackdown has made any criticism of the country’s officials extremely dangerous, even if limited to professional questions about sport.
