As the proverb goes, “it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye”—or, potentially, their life. Those are the allegations Belarusian Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya is bringing forward to her native country as she applied for asylum at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo earlier on Monday. On Sunday afternoon, the athlete was instructed to pack her bags and return to Minsk, after she criticised her national sporting authorities for entering her into the 4×400 meter relay without her consent.

The chilling story is far from a revelation that should shock readers. Olympic games are, after all, a chance for harmless patriotism at best. At their worst, they are the physical manifestation of countries’ attitudes on the international stage. Belarus’ track record of forced re-entry of its dissidents is apparent: Timanovskaya joins the likes of compatriot journalist Roman Protasevich, who was dramatically detained after his plane was forced to land in Minsk.

Forced participation in the Olympics sounds like a chapter straight out of a Soviet handbook, and reeks of eerie similarity. Nevertheless, Timanovskaya is not the only athlete to suffer the repercussions of being perceived as a “traitor”. Although it may vary in degree, the burden that athletes feel when competing in the Olympics is one you and I will most likely never experience.

Their performance is not a measure of their individual prowess, but rather of the nation’s.

And withdrawal—whether forced or voluntary—becomes synonymous with “deserter”. Take for instance Ugandan Olympic weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko, who, after returning to Uganda amidst bizarre circumstances surrounding his disappearance from the Olympic village, told police in Kampala that he left to try to have a better life in Japan. That is because had he won any medals in Tokyo, it would still not be enough to support his wife and unborn child

So far, one for the athletes, nil for patriotism.

Lest we forget, these incidents should not be expected only of countries that are semi-democratic. A chorus of American popular opinion was quick to make itself heard when American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles decided to temporarily withdraw from competing in Tokyo to focus on her mental well-being. Internet sleuths, “couch potatoes”, and twitter-finger haters mobilised and were quick to call the gymnast weak for not being able to withstand the mental pressure of the Olympics.

Biles is the gymnast with most World medals (25) and most World gold medals (19). I’ll let that sink in.

To engage in the Olympics is a chance to display some wholehearted, harmless patriotism, and its history should teach us that the new records set are not always what lasts most in the memory.