SAINT-DENIS-. Three years ago, the Krystsina Tsimanouskaya’s Olympics ended in a dramatic conflict at a Tokyo airport.
Tsimanouskaya is back at the Paris Olympics representing another country.
“My number one goal was to go out and run exactly that event that I couldn’t run in Tokyo,” Tsimanouskaya told The Associated Press on Thursday after completing her final race of the Paris Olympics, the 4×100-meter relay with Team Poland.
A diplomatic incident erupted at the Tokyo Games when the Belarus team sent Tsimanouskaya to the airport and she asked for help from the Japanese police. She had criticised Belarus coaches after they tried to force her to take part in the 4×400 relay, which she had never run before.
She was banned from running her favourite race, the 200m, and said Belarusian authorities tried to force her onto a flight before police intervened.
Tsimanouskaya received help to move to Poland, the country she now represents and for which she ran her favourite 200 metres and the 4x100m relay in Paris.
Tsimanouskaya lost in the 200-meter repechage round and missed the relay final by 22 hundredths of a second on Thursday.
