"This Is My Mission": A Movie About Aliaksandra Herasimenia Was Released
- 10.12.2025, 14:56
The legendary Belarusian sportswoman spoke about her life after the revolution in 2020.
World swimming star, three-time Olympic medalist, world and European champion in swimming, athlete Aliaksandra Herasimenia, who supported the protests in Belarus in 2020, became the heroine of the movie as part of the project "Not Neutral" on the votvot platform.
The Belarusian athlete revealed a lot more about herself, including that she was offered to change her "sports citizenship" but refused:
- I was offered to play for Turkey and Russia. There was a call a few months before the Olympics. I turned it down. The prospects, of course, were different in terms of finances. When I won, I was filled with a sense of pride for my country. That it was not me who "took the medal," but won it for Belarus.
Aliaksandra Herasimenia believes that the protest movement of athletes in Belarus against election fraud in 2020 was unique:
- This is the first precedent in the world, when athletes went against the authorities by such a large community. There has never been such a widespread movement. Especially since 2,000 athletes just signed (an open letter of Belarusian athletes demanding to stop violence in the country - ed.), and the support was even bigger. At the moment when we performed, there was a feeling that we could change the world. This feeling inspired us and motivated us to work.
In December 2022, Aliaksandra Herasimenia was sentenced in absentia in Belarus to 12 years in prison, and her property was confiscated. However, she does not regret taking the side of the people:
- To sit and suffer that I don't have something now? Why? I will enjoy what I have. It's freedom of thought, freedom of action, freedom of decision. It seems like the bare minimum, but it's a big plus that outweighs a lot of things. I wouldn't be able to sit in Minsk and keep quiet, but in my apartment. My conscience would gnaw so much that I wouldn't be able to live. Either I would have "gone crazy" or I would be in jail..
"I feel that it is my mission, my karmic duty, to do something for Belarus, for my country. After all, everything was not in vain,"," says the three-time Olympic medalist.
Belarusian swimmer, three-time Olympic medalist Aliaksandra Herasimenia in 2020 sided with protesters against election fraud. On August 18, 2020, she signed an open letter from Belarusian athletes demanding a halt to the violence in the country.
In October 2020, Gerasimenya left for Ukraine, where she headed the Sports Solidarity Fund, which helped athletes who supported the protests. In 2022, she moved to Warsaw, where she launched swimming classes. In December 2022, the athlete was sentenced in absentia in Belarus to 12 years in prison and her property was confiscated.
In 2024, the Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic awarded Aliaksandra Herasimenia the Medal of the Order of the Pogony.