Belarusian Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya, who defected to Poland, told reporters on Thursday that she hopes she and her husband can stay.

“Once my husband arrives here today, we should make this decision together. I can’t answer anything without him, but I really hope that we can stay here, that I can continue my sports career and that my husband can find work, ”she said at a press conference in Warsaw.

Timanovskaya was scheduled to compete in the women’s 200m at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday. Instead, she says representatives of the Belarusian national team tried to force her home for criticizing sports authorities on her social media.

After receiving several offers of asylum from European countries, Timanovskaya said she chose Poland because her parents thought it was the easiest place for them to visit.

“We chose Poland because I spoke to my parents who said maybe Poland would be the best choice for me because they could probably come and visit me sometimes,” she said on Thursday.

Asked about her last-minute decision not to return to Belarus, Timanovskaya said she “was not thinking of political asylum” and that the decision was motivated by her wish to remain in the sport.

“I wasn’t thinking of political asylum. All I want is to stay in the sport and continue my athletic career here, ”she told reporters.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Timanovskaya accused the representative of the Belarusian national team of stealing her dream by denying her the chance to compete in the women’s 200 meters at the Olympics.

Timanovskaya said Belarusian media had already started to slander her in recent days about the incident.

“My parents told me that they were already talking about me on TV and saying very bad things. That I didn’t take the chance to run the Olympics … that I’m not a good enough athlete and all that. I was sent photos from Telegram channels where people posted links to my Instagram with requests to write bad things to me, ”she explained.

“Yes, I got a lot of horrible messages. But at that point, I got a lot of supportive messages from people. I was reading more positive comments than negative,” she added. .