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Thirty-seven athletes are representing the Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) in Paris at the Olympic Games - and hopes are high that the team could win its first medal.
Paris 2024 will be the third time the Refugee Olympic Team will compete at the Games, with 24 men and 13 women, all of whom hold refugee status in their host nations, set to compete across 12 sports in France.
The Refugee Olympic Team was created as a symbol of hope and to highlight the plight of refugees worldwide. There are around 120 million people globally who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or oppression, a figure that has almost doubled since the Rio Games eight years ago.
In Paris, that will be reflected by the Refugee Olympic Team fielding its biggest team yet, after 10 athletes competed in Rio in 2016 and 29 at the Covid-delayed Games in Tokyo three years ago.
This year, the team includes athletes who have escaped conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria and Iran.
There are also five UK-based members of the Refugee Olympic Team, including boxer Cindy Ngamba, who qualified for the Games by right and has been tipped to win a medal in Paris.
In Paris, the Refugee Olympic Team will have their own emblem and kit, although they will still walk out for the opening ceremony under the Olympic flag.
“These athletes also act as a symbol for the 120 million people who have been forced to flee their homes globally,” said Jojo Ferris of the Olympic Refugee Foundation.
“This team is really about shedding a spotlight on that situation.
“While the Olympic Games will draw everyone’s attention and we hope reach people’s hearts and minds and challenge the often-negative rhetoric presented by the media about refugees, we really want the team to help people understand the positive contribution refugees make to communities and society.”
There has been some controversy over an athlete’s inclusion in the Refugee Olympic Team ahead of Paris 2024, however.
In the week before the Games, the Cuban Olympic Committee demanded the “immediate exclusion” of an island athlete who was included by as part of the EOR.
This will be the first time the team has Cubans on it: Fernando Dayán Jorge, a canoeist who won the gold medal in the 1,000-meter canoe sprint in Tokyo 2020 and weightlifter Ramiro Mora, who currently live in the United States and Great Britain, respectively.
Since May, Cuba opposed both of them being included on the team and said the IOC made a mistake “mixing oil with vinegar” because those athletes were not persecuted or uprooted and they made the decision to emigrate.
“Unfortunately, one of the two athletes included has made disrespectful and fallacious political statements against his country, his people and the sports movement that allowed him to be Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020,” said the official statement from the Cuban Olympic Committee.
The statement did not mention the name of the athlete, but the canoeist has been very vocal against the Cuban government ever since he abandoned his delegation while competing in Mexico to cross the border and settle in the United States.
“The COC is obliged to publicly report this situation and demand the immediate expulsion of the aforementioned athlete from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, according to the rules that govern the International Olympic Movement,” the statement said. “None of these Cuban athletes are uprooted by war or persecuted.”
Includes reporting from the Associated Press
