Belarus runner Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says she showed Japanese police plea for help

Belarusian dissident in Poland, Pavel Latushka, left, and Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, right, who came to Poland fearing reprisals at home after criticising her coaches at the Tokyo Games. Picture: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who criticized her coaches at the Tokyo Games said Thursday that she showed police a translated plea for help on her phone as she tried to avoid being put on a plane home, where she feared reprisals from an authoritarian government.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya described a dramatic series of events at the Olympics that led her to flee to Poland, where she arrived Wednesday.