Coach

Mikalai Kazeka

officially led the national team until the last moment, but was not allowed by the authorities to manage the team at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

Kazeko supported the demand for new free elections and spoke out against violence by security forces.

After that, he was deprived of the presidential scholarship, and they stopped taking him to the national team training sessions.

"His contract expired in the summer - it was not renewed.

You can say that Mikalai Ivanovich has retired," two-time Olympic medalist and ex-coach of the national team Dmytro

Dashchinsky

, who moved to Australia, said in an interview for the "Otrazhenie" blog.

Kazeka also supported the freestyler

Aleksandra Romanovskaya

when the authorities began to persecute her as well.

Now, on the website of the Belarusian Skiing Union, the head coach is listed as

Mikhail Kurlovich

, who de facto led the freestyle team since Kazeki's dismissal.

Kazeka led the Belarusian national team in freestyle since 1993.

His pupils won four gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympics.