A Ukrainian skier has withdrawn from the Olympics to protest the deaths of anti-government protesters in her country.

Bogdana Matsotska tells The Associated Press "I don't want to participate when in my country people die."

The 24-year-old skier is refusing to ski in Friday's slalom, her third and best event at the Sochi Olympics.

Matsotska says Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych "has to be jailed, and for a long time ... for all the lives that he took."

She says "I hope that I will be heard by the world."

Matsotska wants to join protesters in Kiev's Independence Square but says she's been unable to book a flight home.

She is remaining with her father, who coaches her, in the Olympic athletes' village in the mountains above Sochi.