Olympics 2024 | Belarusian athlete-turned-psychologist ponders mental plight of exiled athletes

Paris: Volleyball player Artur Udrys quit the Belarusian national team following a 2020 presidential vote that sparked mass protests, joining hundreds of other elite athletes in their opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko.

Now living in Poland, Udrys has retrained as a psychologist, which has given him particular insight into the lives of Belarusian athletes who were forced to flee the country because of the violent crackdown against protesters.

"Some of them arrive and can't find a job because many aren't able to continue their sporting careers," Udrys said of Belarusian athletes who left the country to avoid reprisals from the authorities.

"There are a lot of complicated feelings here, ranging from a life crisis, adaptation, moving, to the notion that you have to end your sports career to find another profession."

Some Belarusian athletes who took part in the protests or voiced support for the opposition - including Olympic decathlete Andrei Krauchanka and basketball player Yelena Leuchanka - were jailed in the wake of the election.

Others lost their state employment or were kicked off national teams, leaving them few options but to leave Belarus.

Udrys, who treats both athletes and non-athletes, said many exiled athletes experienced shame when they found themselves unable to practice their sport.

"Athletes often don't know how to make money beyond their sport, so they might find themselves in the service industry," the 33-year-old said.

"I've heard cases in which an athletes became taxi drivers... 'I had a name, some kind of authority. Now I drive a taxi.'"

National Team ideology

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to board a flight back home when she was removed from the Games against her will by her team after she publicly complained about national coaches.

She defected to Poland, saying she feared for her safety if she returned to Belarus. Tsimanouskaya will represent Poland at the Paris Games opening on Friday.

Udrys said the rigging that had taken place during the 2020 election had made it impossible for him to continue representing Belarus.

"If I don't agree with ideology, or with values, or with what's happening in the country, or with the actions of the current government, then I think being on the national team is at the very least stupid, and maybe even hypocritical," he said.

Only a few Belarusian athletes will compete in Paris as neutrals due to sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine, for which Belarus was used as a staging ground for Russian troops.

The athletes competing are vetted to ensure they have not actively supported the war in Ukraine and been contracted by any military or security agency.