A Belarusian cross-country skier has left her homeland with her family due to fear of persecution by authorities after she was barred from competing because of her family’s political views.
Darya Dolidovich and her family are now in Poland, where she hopes to continue her sports training. This was said yesterday by her father Sergei Dolidovich, a participant in seven Olympics in the discipline of cross-country skiing and coach of the athlete.
The 17-year-old Darya Dolidovich was barred from running because of her father’s involvement in protests against the 2020 re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which the opposition said was accompanied by electoral fraud. Lukashenko denies manipulating the vote.
“Darya was deprived of the right to compete”, said her father Sergei Dolidovich, adding: “I do not see an opportunity for her to continue her career in Belarus”.
“They can charge us with participating in a demonstration and chanting of (opposition) slogans, and simply send us to prison”, said Sergei Dolidovich. “Only three months ago, I did not imagine in my worst nightmares that I would end up leaving my country”, added he.
The departure of the Dolidovich family from Belarus comes days after the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, where the Belarusian national team was placed under strict scrutiny following the escape of athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Darya Dolidovich, one of the country’s most promising junior cross-country skiers, said last month that the Belarusian Ski Union had canceled her code with the International Ski Federation, which is required for an athlete to compete in the federation.
The Belarusian Ski Union informed Dolidovich’s coaches in a letter on January 31st that it had revoked its code in December in accordance with a decision by the Belarusian Cross-Country Skiing Federation. The letter did not state the reasons for the decision.
