My morning masthead has put me in mind of this event, from the Tokyo Summer Games, of 2021.

Here’s a CNN updating piece — from 2023:

…Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, the Belarusian sprinter who defected at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, has been cleared by World Athletics to compete for Poland after it waived the normal three-year waiting period for nationality changes.

Tsimanouskaya refused to board a flight back home from Tokyo when she was removed from the Olympics against her will after publicly complaining about national team coaches’ decision to enter her in the 4×400 meters relay, which was not her customary distance.

She defected to Poland, saying she feared for her safety if she returned to Belarus. Poland granted her citizenship last year (2022)….

“There is a chance that I will go to the world championships in Budapest,” she added, referring to the competition starting on August 19.

Tsimanouskaya told Reuters last year she wanted another chance to compete at the Olympics. She hoped to race in the 200m at next year’s Paris Games, the event she had been set to run in Tokyo the day after Belarus removed her from the team.

Belarusians and Russians are currently barred from competing at international athletics meets because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus is a staging area of what Moscow calls a “special military operation”….

In some sense, we are all… immigrants — we are all… asylum seekers. Onward.

नमस्ते