Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, in Japan for the Olympic Games, took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo on 168, a day after refusing to board a flight home with her team.

Tsimanouskaya, 24, said she was taken against her will to Tokyo's Haneda airport after complaining on social media about her national coaches. At the airport, she sought protection from Japanese police. She plans to leave for Poland in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister said.

Here are quotes from officials and others involved in reaction to the developments:

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BELARUS, JULIE FISHER:

"Thanks to the quick action of Japanese and Polish authorities, Tsimanouskaya is able to evade the attempts of the Lukashenko regime to discredit and humiliate this #Tokyo2020 athlete for expressing her views," Fisher wrote on Twitter.

GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON, MARIA ADEBAHR:

"We call on the authorities in Belarus to respect basic democratic rights, including freedom of the media, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

"This applies to every citizen of Belarus and, of course, to sportsmen and sportswomen."

FRENCH EUROPEAN AFFAIRS MINISTER CLEMENT BEAUNE:

"Political asylum - it would be an honour for Europe to do so," Beaune told RFI radio.

INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SPOKESPERSON MARK ADAMS:

"Our duty to her is to make sure she is safe and secure and she's told us that she is. We were in touch with her last night and we are in touch with her again today and continue to be in touch with her. But in the end if there are wider issues that isn't for the IOC to deal with.

"We are supporting her and we want to make sure that she gets what she wants and we support her in that.