Olympic athlete Kristina Timanovskaya, from Belarus, has been granted a humanitarian visa by Poland on Monday after the sprinter claimed her team tried to force her to leave Japan against her will.

Timanovskaya was supposed to be competing in the 200 meters heats in Tokyo on Monday, but instead she found herself looking for asylum after saying her country's Olympic committee had tried to send her back to Belarus following her criticism on social media of her coaches, who she said had registered her for a relay without giving her notice.

She spent Sunday night in a Japanese airport hotel after she appealed to Olympic officials to help stop her being sent back to Belarus, where the 24-year-old sprinter said she fears will face jail. 

"I am not afraid that I will be fired or kicked out of the national team, I am worried about my safety. And I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus," Timanovskaya told Belarusian independent news portal Zerkalo.io.

She was offered visas by Poland, Czechia and Slovenia.

"Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career," Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter.

Her husband, Arseny Zdanevich, also fled Belarus on Monday. From Ukraine capital Kiev, he told AFP reporters he was hoping to join his wife "in the near future."

The Belarusian Olympic Committee said in a statement that Timanovskaya left the competition following medical advice because of her "emotional and psychological state."

Belarus athletics head coach Yuri Moisevich told state television he "could see there was something wrong with her ... she either secluded herself or didn't want to talk."

Earlier on Monday, International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said officials would continue conversations with Tsimanouskaya and had asked for a full report from Belarus's Olympic committee.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election to serve a sixth term last August prompted a political crisis in the country, with protesters taking to the streets, followed by a crackdown by the authorities on the opposition.