There is a fact that people from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a very influential and powerful organization, are particularly proud of. Namely, the IOC has 206 members, which is thirteen more than the United Nations. There is practically no country or territory in the world that is not represented in the IOC. And yet, athletes in one group of more than 100 million people have not been able to participate in the Olympics until recently.
The number of refugees and exiles in the world has grown rapidly in recent years and in 2023 will exceed the mentioned number. Among them were a large number of athletes, so in 2015 the IOC made a commendable decision to form the Olympic Refugee Team in order to provide the opportunity for athletes without a country to compete on the biggest sports stage, but also to draw attention to the global refugee crisis. and showed solidarity and support for millions of refugees around the world.
Thousands of athletes around the world are victims not only of wars, but also of dictatorial regimes, draconian anti-civilization laws and political persecution in their countries. In the chaos and noise of territorial wars and the imposition of religious and ideological obfuscations, the individual's desire to continue with a normal life is not only not desirable, but is treated as a threat. Therefore, among the members of the Refugee Team at the Olympics, most of the athletes did not flee from international conflicts, but were victims of persecution by the regime in their own countries.
The refugee team participated for the first time at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 with ten athletes from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and DR Congo, who competed in three disciplines. Although they did not achieve great success or win medals, their performance was evaluated as an extremely important symbol of global solidarity.
At the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, the team was larger, consisting of 29 athletes, while at the Olympics in Paris this year, a refugee team is expected to perform, which will include 37 athletes from 12 different countries - Cuba, Syria, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo , Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela and others. They qualified for competitions in various sports including athletics, swimming, judo, taekwondo and cycling. The importance attached to this team by the International Olympic Committee is also explained by a detail from the opening protocol of the Games, according to which athletes from this team will appear in the parade at the very beginning, right after the representatives of Greece. IOC President Thomas Bach said recently: "The refugee team is a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world." He is a reminder to all of us of the importance of solidarity, compassion and peace".
Probably the most famous athlete from the Refugee teams at the last Olympics is Yusra Mardini, a swimmer from Syria. She and her sister Sarah decided to escape from Damascus in August 2015. They reached Lebanon from where they took a boat to Greece with 18 other migrants. After the boat's engine stopped working, Yusra, Sarah and two other people entered the water and pushed the boat for more than three hours until they reached the island of Lesbos. After that, they traveled on foot through Europe to Germany, where they settled in Berlin in September 2015. A movie was made about that event a few years later Swimmers. Jusra competed in swimming at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 Olympics. Today, she is also active as a UNHCR goodwill ambassador.
The life stories of the members of this year's team for the Olympics in Paris, especially viewed as a whole, give us a clear insight into the seriousness of the refugee crisis that does not subside, as well as the determination and unusual courage of its actors. Farzad Mansoori competed for Afghanistan at the Tokyo Olympics in taekwondo. He was Afghanistan's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, but will now compete as a refugee in his second Games. Shortly after Tokyo, in the summer of 2021, he fled Afghanistan with only sports gear as luggage, amid tens of thousands trying to board evacuation flights as the Taliban returned to power. His colleague from the taekwondo national team, Mohammad Jan Sultani, was killed that day in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. "It was a really difficult moment when I heard that I had lost a friend," said Mansuri. "Now I really hope that we can find peace in my country and around the world."
Many refugee athletes say that thanks to sports they managed to cope with the challenges of refugee life. Iman Mahdavi was a seven-time national junior wrestling champion when he left Iran in 2020, arriving in Italy via Turkey. "When I became a refugee, wrestling was the only hope for me. At first I couldn't train in the clubs, so I started running to stay active, to deal with stress." Arab Sibgatullah, who was on Afghanistan's youth judo team before fleeing Kabul, traveled through 13 countries, mostly on foot after dark, trying to stay fit but fearing he would never compete again. He was granted asylum in Germany. "This team is a message of hope," he said. Boxer Cindy Ngamba, who cannot return to Cameroon because she is gay, which is still a criminal offense in the country, is believed to be the first athlete to win a medal for a refugee team. Cindi Ngamba, who graduated in criminology in Great Britain, talks about her expectations: "We are going there as a unique team, as a family and I hope that refugees around the world will be able to look at us and be motivated to see themselves in a few years and believe in what what they can achieve". Badminton player Dorsa Yavarivafa left Iran with her mother at the age of 14 and is now studying sports science at Middlesex University. Her father introduced her to badminton, but until recently he never watched her play in public because of the rules in Iran that separate men and women in the sport. She told all the displaced athletes: "Keep training, never give up."
Of course, once the Olympics are over, the members of the Refugee Team will continue their lives in exile as they prepare for the next competitions. The successes of other athletes of their country will, as expected, be used to fulfill their own interests and present them as a triumph of the nation. Nevertheless, the stories of athletes in exile will remain as a reminder that in sports, as in life, behind every result is the talent and work of exceptional individuals, and that collectives and collectivism are almost always only an obstacle. In a world where sport too often serves the so-called national interests and the resolution of collective frustrations and traumas, the courage and perseverance of persecuted and refugee people from the Olympic Refugee Team, who found a way to continue fighting for their right to a normal life, not only brings hope to other refugees, victims of persecution and wars, but at the same time, they represent a small triumph of individualism and the right to personal choice.
