Poland has granted a humanitarian visa to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who claimed her team tried to force her to leave Japan, Poland’s deputy foreign minister said on August 2.

Tsimanouskaya “is already in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo. She has received a humanitarian visa. Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career”, Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter.

Przydacz said Tsimanouskaya had turned to Poland for help out of her “very difficult” situation and was “safe on the grounds of our embassy” in Tokyo, news channel TVN24 reported.

“Poland offers support to Belarusian citizens who for political reasons either want to leave Belarusian territory or do not want to return to Belarus,” he said.

Foreign ministry officials were quoted by Polish media as saying they expected the athlete to travel to Poland this week.

“She will likely go to Poland,” Tsimanouskaya’s husband Arseny Zdanevich told AFP on August 2 from Ukrainian capita Kiev where he said he had fled to, adding that he was hoping to join his wife “in the near future”.

Timanovskaya, 24, spent the night in a Japanese airport hotel after asking Tokyo Olympics officials to help her avoid being put on a flight back to Belarus and was supposed to be in the Olympic Stadium on August 2, competing in the 200m heats.