WeeklySA_AdminDISPLACED: Athletes from countries including Syria, Sudan, Iran and Afghanistan to take part across 12 sports in Paris, representing 11 countries of origin…
By WSAM Reporter
It’s official: 36 athletes will form the IOC Refugee Olympic Team Paris 2024, representing the world’s displaced population of over displaced 100 million people at this summer’s Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The 36 athletes come from 11 different countries of origin, and are currently hosted by 15 different National Olympic Committees. In Paris, they will compete in 12 different sports: aquatics (swimming), athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoe (slalom and sprint), cycling (road), judo, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman).
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach made the announcement during a ceremony at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, yesterday. “We welcome all of you with open arms. You are an enrichment to our Olympic Community, and to our societies.
“With your participation in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence. This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world,” Bach said.
The IOC Refugee Olympic Team is competing at the Olympic Games for the third time, after previous appearances at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. This year, its Chef de Mission will be Masomah Ali Zada, who competed as a member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team Tokyo 2020.
According to UNHCR, there were an estimated 114 million people forcibly displaced worldwide as of September 2023. The vast majority of the athletes were selected from among the refugee athletes supported by the IOC through the Refugee Athletes Scholarship Programme, funded by the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme and managed by the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said: “The Refugee Olympic Team should remind us of the resilience, courage and hopes of all those uprooted by war and persecution. These athletes represent what human beings can do, even in the face of extreme adversity. The team also reminds us that sport can be transformative for people whose lives have been disrupted in often harrowing circumstances. Transformative not just for Olympians, but for everyone. Sport can offer respite, an escape from daily worries, a sense of safety, a moment of enjoyment. It can give people the chance to heal physically and mentally, and become part of a community again.”
For the first time, the Refugee Olympic Team will compete under its own team emblem – a unifying symbol bringing together diverse athletes and giving the team its own unique identity.
Hailing from different corners of the world, each team member is an individual with their own story. Like the many millions they stand for, they also have the shared, lived, experience of their journeys – the emblem aims to convey this through its way marker arrow design. Ms Ali Zada said: “This emblem brings us all together. We are all unified by our experience – though all different, we have all had a journey to get to where we are. The athletes are not representing a specific country, they are representing the Refugee Olympic Team – having our own emblem creates a sense of belonging and empowers us to also stand for the population of more than 100 million people who share this same experience. I cannot wait to wear it proudly!”
Supporting refugees and displaced populations remained a key priority for the IOC. The Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) was established in 2017 to build on this commitment. The Foundation functions in lieu of a traditional National Olympic Committee, managing the Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for Paris 2024.
Since its inception in 2017, the work of the ORF has resulted in almost 400 000 young people being able to access safe sport. More than 1,600 coaches have been trained in delivering safe sport sessions, and its programmes have supported young people in 11 countries across all five continents.
The List of Athletics
Adnan Khankan (Judo); Alaa Maso (Swimming); Amir Ansari (Cycling Road); Amir Hassanjani (Canoe Slalom); Arab Sibghatullah (Judo); Cindy Ngamba (Boxing); Dina Langeroudi (Taekwondo); Dorian Keletela (Athletics); Dorsa Yavarivafa (Badminton); Eyeru Gebru (Cycling Road); Fabrida Abaroge (Athletics); Farzad Mansouri (Taekwondo); Fernando Dayan Enriquez (Canoe Sprint); Hadi Toranvalipour (Taekwondo); Iman Mahdavi (Wrestling); Jamal Abdelmaji (Athletics); Jamal Valizadeh (Wrestling Greco-Roman); Kara Mehdipournejad (Taekwondo); Luna Solomon (Shooting); Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi (Judo); Manizha Talash (Breaking); Matin Balsini (Swimming); Mohammad Amin Alsalami (Athletics); Mohammad Rashnonezhad (Judo); Muna Dahouk (Judo); Musa Suliman (Athletics); Nigara Shaheen (Judo); Omid Ahmadisafa (Boxing); Perina Nakang (Athletics); Ramiro Mora (Weightlifting); Saeid Fazloula (Canoe Sprint); Saman Soltani (Canoe Sprint); Tachlowini Gabriyesos (Athletics); Yahya al Ghotany (Taekwondo); and Yekta Jamali Galeh (Weightlifting).
