[1] After a medal-winning career, including gold at the 2012 World Championships and silver at the 2012 London Olympics, she became a critic of the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, and now lives in exile in Poland.

Despite a two-year ban for a positive test for norandrosterone in 2003,[3] Herasimenia returned to win gold medals at both the European and World Championships.

[5] Herasimenia is a founder of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), a group that supports athletes jailed or sidelined for their political views.

In April 2021, she sold her 2012 world championship gold medal to raise funds for the foundation and for legal fees[6] after facing charges from the Belarus Government for criticising them on social media.

[7] She was one of the supporters of Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was threatened with enforced return to Belarus from the Tokyo Olympics after criticising team coaches.