Sabelenka maintains a friendship with dictator Lukashenko, provoked Ukrainian women, and remained silent on the war for an extended period.

Updated and expanded.

Marta Kostyuk, Ukrainian tennis player

On Sunday, January 26, presidential elections will take place in Belarus.

The 2020 elections in the neighboring country ended with mass repressions, beatings of people in the streets, persecution, and imprisonment of anyone opposing the regime.

In any country, athletes are recognizable figures, which the authorities exploit. Sports and athletes serve as powerful tools for dictatorial regimes to influence the masses and use them for their own political purposes.

This thesis was best illustrated in the summer of 2020, when a vast majority of elite Belarusian athletes not only supported the dictator but also failed to condemn the actions of security forces against their citizens.

Currently, the leading Belarusian athlete is tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one, and the winner of 18 WTA tournaments, four of which are Grand Slam events.

Sports outside of politics, or Sabalenka in politics

One of the favorite phrases of the tennis player, which she repeats almost at every press conference over the past few years. A well-known mantra. However, the athlete herself is deeply entangled in that very politics.

Let’s take it step by step.

In 2017, Sabalenka first met with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko after a Billie Jean King Cup match, which evidently set the stage for subsequent events up to the present.

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Friendship with the dictator

Perhaps the athlete was so captivated by their first meeting that in 2019, she urgently requested an audience with Lukashenko herself. The reason for the meeting remains unknown to this day, but, as Belarusian journalists speculate, the matter was very personal, of the kind that only the president could resolve.

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As seen from the screenshots, the tennis player arrived to meet Lukashenko in sportswear, likely indicating that the matters were extremely urgent.

Subsequently, she referred to Lukashenko as a member of her team.

In 2020, during peaceful protests in Belarus following the presidential elections, the tennis player called for an end to the violence, thanked the government for everything it has done for the people and… signed a letter supporting the "mustached dictator."

Moreover, she welcomed the new year in 2021 in the company of the same Lukashenko...

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Ukraine

After February 24, 2022, Sabalenka was repeatedly asked to express her views on the war, but the Belarusian either evaded the question or spouted blatant nonsense.

The peak of this story occurred at the 2023 French Open (Roland Garros).

Journalist Daria Meshcheryakova from Tribuna continually posed simple and specific questions to Sabalenka.

Meshcheryakova: "I want to ask you two questions. The first is about Belarus. In 2020, you signed a letter supporting Lukashenko at a time when he ordered the torture and beating of protesters in the streets. Ultimately, you appeared in his New Year's greeting. How is it possible that a potential world number one supports a dictator?"

Sabalenka: "I have no comments for you."

Meshcheryakova: "And the second question. You keep saying that no one supports the war. But can you speak for yourself? Can you say: "I, Aryna Sabalenka, categorically condemn Belarus's missile attacks on Ukraine and want this to stop"?

Sabalenka: "I have no comments for you."

Hashek urged the media not to be afraid to ask direct questions to athletes from Russia and Belarus

Perhaps the questions from the Ukrainian journalist frightened the Belarusian so much that after another match, she completely ignored communication with the media representatives. As the tennis player explained, it was for her own psychological well-being.

Overall, Sabalenka tries to position herself as a victim.

She is surprised that Ukrainian tennis players do not shake her hand, like Marta Kostyuk did after the first-round match at Roland Garros 2023, accompanying it with an inferior show for the public after the aforementioned game.

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After defeating Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals of the Paris major, the Belarusian staged a real show, waiting for Svitolina for a handshake, but it turned out to be rather awkward...

At that time, Ukrainian tennis players had already been ignoring Russian and Belarusian players, including Sabalenka, for over a year.

Shortly after, at a press conference, while answering journalists' questions, albeit hesitantly, she managed to express something. For the first and last time:

As we can see, the question of war is complicated for the tennis player...

Belarusian sports journalist Yaroslav Pisarenko mentioned on the YouTube channel "ChestnOK" that even as a young girl, Lukashenko helped Aryna break a burdensome contract with an unnamed Russian agent, under which she earned almost nothing.

The journalist suggests that after that incident, Sabalenka became dependent on the dictator. This in no way justifies the player, who by the time of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was already among the elite of women's tennis and had long since stopped living in her homeland.

In January 2024, a congratulatory message from the tennis player appeared on the website of the unrecognized president of Belarus, celebrating her victory at the Australian Open 2024... Such messages continue to appear after Sabalenka's victories to this day...

Beforehand, Sabalenka was unable to please Lukashenko and make him a gift for the elections. The Belarusian lost in the final of the Australian Open to American Madison Keys.

However, this will not allow Belarusians to rid themselves of the regime. Elections without choice...