Beautiful Belarusian athlete Yana Maksimova has decided to follow in the footsteps of Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya and not return to her home country because “you can not only lose your freedom now, but also your life”.

Belarusian all-rounder Yana Maksimova announced her decision on Instagram after Timanovskaya was embroiled in an international scandal this week.

The sprinter missed her dream of competing in the Olympics when she criticised the sporting authorities in an Instagram post on Friday, and representatives of the Belarus national team tried to forcibly send her home on a plane on Monday.

Fearing for her safety in Belarus, Timanovskaya refused to board the plane and was granted a humanitarian visa from Poland later the same day.

Now blonde Belarusian athlete Maksimova, who is in Germany with her family, has since announced that she will not be returning to her home country out of similar fears for her safety.

Maksimova, whose husband Andrei Kravchenko is also involved in athletics, wrote on social media: “Thinking and thinking for a long time, we have decided not to return to Belarus.

“To our great regret, there you can not only lose your freedom now, but also your life.

“There is an opportunity to breathe deeply and be someone who fights for the freedom of its people, friends, relatives and loved ones, and we will definitely win.”

Maksimova, who failed to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo, added: “I hope that my sporting career continues, and I will have the opportunity to train and prepare for the next Olympic games.”

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, 66, often dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator’, was first elected in 1994 and has remained in power ever since.

He was re-elected for the sixth time in 2020 with 80 percent of the vote and the EU declared the ballot “neither free nor fair”.