Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, the Belarusian Olympian defector who missed her moment at the Tokyo Games,is auctioning one of her medals to support other Belarusian athletes.
“I made the decision to put my medal up for auction to help athletes that are in need of support or any kind of help and the money will go to the [Belarusian] Sports Solidarity Foundation. In turn, the foundation will help athletes organise gatherings and competitions,” the 24-year-old sprinter said in a statement.
The silver medal she is parting with, awarded from the team relay at the 2nd European Games 2019 in Minsk, has gone up for auction on eBay, with a starting price of $21,000. So far, there is one bid.
Tsimanouskaya caught the world’s attention on August 1, when she refused to obey her team’s orders to leave Tokyo early and board a Belarus-bound plane, saying she feared for her safety in her homeland.
Thousands have been arrested in Belarus over the past year after a contested election on August 9 last year.
Detractors of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko accuse him of stealing the election and ordering the arrests.
Lukashenko rejects claims that he is an autocrat and says Tsimanouskaya was manipulated.
On Monday, the United States announced new sanctions on Belarus’s Olympic Committee for evading existing sanctions and money laundering. The committee, led by Victor Lukashenko, the president’s son, dismissed the sanctions as baseless.
