Sprinter Cimanoŭskaja wins Olympic license as Polish team member

May 5, Pozirk. In a show of triumph over the sports officials in Minsk, a Belarusian sprinter competing for Poland has qualified for the Olympic Games to be held in Paris from July 26 to August 11.

Today’s relay race in the world championships in the Bahamas brought Kryścina Cimanoŭskaja her long-awaited license as the Polish team made it to the final in the women’s 4x100m.

Cimanoŭskaja, then a member of the Belarusian team, asked for asylum in Poland after an incident at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The coaching staff demanded that she compete in a discipline she had not trained for. The athlete refused and brought the problem to the public’s attention.

In this way, her fans learned about her conflict with Artur Šumak, deputy director of the Belarusian National Olympic Training Center in Athletics, and Juryj Maisievič, athletics head coach.

On August 1, 2021, Cimanoŭskaja was to be forcibly sent to her home country, but asked police for help at Tokyo airport. From Japan, she flew to Austria and then to Poland, where she now lives.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed an act granting her citizenship in June 2023. On August 7, Cimanoŭskaja said that she had gained the right to compete for Poland in international games.

An opponent of Alaksandar Łukašenka’s regime, she is running for the Coordination Council from the Law and Order group led by Alaksandar Azaraŭ.

Two more Belarusian women have a chance to qualify for the Olympics from Poland: high jumper Maryja Žodzik and dressage rider Volha Safronava.