For some athletes, the Olympics arent just a chance to compete - theyre an opportunity to defect For some athletes, the Olympics are... On Sunday, Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya turned up at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo - becoming the latest Olympic athlete to refuse to return to her country out of fear for her personal safety. The Olympics have served as sites of protest, platforms to isolate discriminatory regimes and theaters for Cold War tensions. For some athletes and coaches, the Games have also offered avenues to defect. "The Olympics provide a very attractive opportunity for people to escape difficult situations at home, most often political repression," said Barbara Keys, a historian at Durham University.