When Feyisa Lilesa crossed the Rio Olympics' marathon finish line on Sunday, the Ethiopian silver medallist would normally have been celebrated as a national hero.
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But the crossed arms protest gesture above his head means Lilesa's achievement is likely to get scant official attention back home.
Wrists crossed in the air have been a symbol of defiance in Ethiopia's bloody nine-month-long anti-government revolt, known as the Oromo protests.
Lilesa told Fairfax Media after the race that he now feared for his life.
"If I go back to Ethiopia maybe they will kill me. If I am not killed maybe they will put me in prison. [If ] they [do] not put me in prison they will block me at airport," he said. "Maybe I move to another country."
As the athlete's protest made global headlines, Ethiopia's government spokesman Getachew Reda tweeted his congratulations "to all #Ethiopians", making special mention of "#FeyissaLelissa":
#Conratulations to all #Ethiopians on a memorable #Olympic performance by our heroes,from #AlmazAyana to #FeyissaLelissa have made us proud!— Getachew Reda Kahsay (@getachewkreda) August 21, 2016
But within the country, state broadcaster EBC reportedly failed to cover the silver medal achievement in news bulletins and only briefly mentioned it in a sports report, running pictures of the Kenyan winner. Its online article doesn't mention the protest gesture.
The Oromo protests began late last year against government plans to expand the capital Addis Ababa's footprint into surrounding Oromo farmland. The government later scrapped the development plans but the protests have continued against the authorities' crackdown.
Over 500 demonstrators are estimated to have been killed by Ethiopian security forces since November, with thousands detained without trial, according to Human Rights Watch.
As many as 100 were reportedly killed over the first weekend in August alone, which also saw demonstrations in the Amhara region, signalling a growing escalation of discontent against the government.
The bloody crackdown led the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid bin Raad al-Hussein, to call for international observers to be allowed into the restive areas.
Rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not officially banned from Ethiopia but in practice they can't deploy staff.
Internet cuts and social media blocks such as those recently reported by The Washington Post also mean credible information on the protests is difficult to come by.
The Oromo are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, making up approximately 35 per cent of the population according to the country's 2007 census. Ethiopia's population is approximately 100 million.
"Since they were integrated into the Ethiopian state around the end of the 19th century, Oromos have been marginalised and subordinated," says Dr Awol Allo, an Oromo man and London School of Economics fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights.
Visible on his crossed wrists, Lilesa's sweatband bore the red, black and white colours of the Oromia regional flag.
"I was protesting for my people," he said after the race. "It was for all my relatives in prison."
