A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who feared reprisals at home after criticizing her coaches at the Tokyo games said on Thursday that her grandmother advised her not to return to Belarus because of negative reports about her on television.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya left the Olympics and arrived in Poland on Wednesday, days after she accused team officials of trying to force her to fly back to Belarus where an authoritarian government has relentlessly pursued its critics.

She told reporters that the officials told her to say she was injured and had to go home early, but she refused.

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