Swimmer Herasimenia sells her gold medal for over $16K

The famous Belarusian swimmer, three-time Olympic medalist Aliaksandra Herasimenia has sold her gold medal from the 2012 World Championship on eBay for $16.1 thousand. The starting price was three thousand dollars, but it rose rapidly. The money will be donated to the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund.

"By this lot, I would like to support all the Belarusians, to give them a charge of 100% confidence in victory, as the belief in victory is 90% of success!" Herasimenia wrote. "There's a black ribbon on the medal. I think it symbolizes all our victims and political prisoners."

At the beginning of April, it was reported that a criminal case was brought against the head of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, Aliaksandra Herasimenia, for calls to commit other actions aimed at damaging the national security of the Republic of Belarus. She has been living abroad since last fall.

Earlier, shot putter Nadzeya Astapchuk sold a gold medal from the 2005 European Championship for $11.1 thousand at an auction. She donated the money to support Belarusian athletes who had suffered because they had expressed their civic duty. Basketball player Katsyaryna Snytsina did the same, selling her bronze medal from the Euro 2007 competition for $10,000. All of them supported the peaceful protests in our country.