Belarus Sprinter’s Defection Sheds Light on a Dictator’s Levers of Control

The Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya, center, at the airport in Tokyo on Wednesday.Credit...Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty ImagesWhen Belarusian Olympic officials came to Kristina Timanovskaya’s room after the sprinter complained publicly about her coaches, the head of the national team made it clear they had an order for her to return home — and it came from the top.

That’s because, like much else in Belarus, sports is a family-run business. That family belongs to President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, who has held sway with authoritarian power in the Eastern European country for 27 years.

Ms. Timanovskaya refused and defected in an Olympic scandal reminiscent of the Cold War. On Wednesday, she…