The second boat out of the 94 in the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics flew under a flag with the five Olympic circles, rather than a country flag. The 37 athletes on board are there as the Olympic refugee team, representing 11 different countries of origin and competing in 12 different sports. U.K.-based boxer Cindy Ngamba and Yahya Al Ghotany, who practices taekwondo in Jordan’s Azraq Refugee Camp, were the team’s flag bearers.
The first Refugee Olympic Team participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics with 10 members, the second team of 29 participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the fourth team will participate in the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told The Associated Press in an interview on Sunday that the team is “a symbol of inclusion, of equality, of achievement for a large community around the world of refugees and displaced people.”
Who is on it?
This year’s team of athletes is led by a 2020 Tokyo Games refugee athlete, Masomah Ali Zada, who competed in road cycling. In Paris, she will lead the largest team yet as its chief of mission and spokesperson. “In Tokyo, we just missed out on a medal. I’m confident that this time we can demonstrate to the world what refugees are capable of — with an Olympic medal,” said Masomah.
One of the athletes she is cheering on is Perina Lokure Nakang. She was just 7 years old when she fled war in South Sudan to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. Four years ago, she began to run for sport. Her first run was 9 miles along the road near her refugee camp. Now 21, she will be running in the 800-meter, like Athing Mu, the Olympic champion of South Sudanese descent, who is one of her inspirations. Nakang is the only refugee athlete currently based in Africa.
Nakang follows in the footsteps of Yiech Pur Biel, also South Sudanese, who competed in the 2016 Rio Games. Biel, an International Olympic Committee member, as well as the first refugee fellow at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, “ran for his life” the first time he ran. When he was 20, he entered a running competition and placed third in the 10K — running barefoot. He didn’t get his first pair of shoes until nine months before the Rio Olympics. He will be among those handing out medals in Paris.
Another athlete competing in Paris is Cindy Ngamba, originally from Cameroon. She moved to England when she was 11 and found a home in the boxing arena. Today, she became the first member of the 2024 Refugee Olympic Team to reach the quarter-final stage at the Paris Olympics after a 3-2 split decision win over 2022 world champion Tammara Thibeault of Canada. The possibility of a first medal for refugee athletes feels within reach to Ngamba. She is hoping to make history.
“I’m going to be the first ever refugee to make it out there,” The Associated Press reported. “There’s a lot of pressure out there. I am human, I have emotion, and I’m not going to hide about that ... but I never let pressure bring me down. I’ve gone through so many obstacles in life, just like millions of refugees.”
How are athletes chosen?
To be eligible, they had to excel in their respective sports. UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, verified their refugee status as determined by their host country. In the run-up to Paris, more than 70 refugee athletes were supported with scholarships while the final team selection was announced by the IOC in early May. Balanced representation in terms of sport, gender and regions was taken into consideration.
Who pays?
According to the Olympic Refuge Foundation, the majority of athletes on the team are supported through the Refugee Athlete Scholarship Program, which is managed by the ORF and funded by Olympic Solidarity. Olympic Solidarity offers host National Olympic Committees the opportunity to identify refugee athletes living in their countries and support them throughout their training, preparation and participation in high-level competitions.
The IOC Executive Board selected the Refugee Olympic Team for the 2024 Paris Games. To be eligible, athletes must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognized by UNHCR.
Creating access to sports for other refugees
In addition to supporting top athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games, the Olympic Refugee Foundation organizes programs around the world to provide access to safe sports to displaced communities. “We believe in an a society where everyone belongs, through sport,” reads their website. They work with leaders, businesses, coaches and refugees from across the world. “We all share one goal,” they write, “for displaced young people to find belonging through sport, and shape their own futures, their way.”
Since it began in 2017, the Olympic Refugee Foundation has provided access to sports to almost 400,000 people and training for 1,600 coaches. Their goal is to reach 1 million young people affected by displacement.
The complete list
Here is the complete list of this year’s athletes competing for the refugee team in the 2024 Paris Olympics, along with their birth country and the sport in which they’ll be competing:
- Adnan Khankan: Syria, judo
- Alaa Maso: Syria, swimming
- Amir Ansari: Iran (refugee from Afghanistan), cycling
- Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani: Iran, canoe slalom
- Arab Sibghatullah: Afghanistan, judo
- Cindy Ngamba: Cameroon, boxing
- Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi: Iran, taekwondo
- Dorian Keletela: Congo, athletics
- Dorsa Yavarivafa: Iran, badminton
- Eyeru Gebru: Ethiopia, cycling
- Farida Abaroge: Ethiopia, athletics
- Farzad Mansouri: Afghanistan, taekwondo
- Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez: Cuba, canoe sprint
- Francisco Edilio Centeno Nieves: Venezuela, shooting
- Hadi Tiranvalipour: Iran, taekwondo
- Iman Mahdavi: Iran, wrestling
- Jamal Abdelmaji: Darfur, Sudan, athletics
- Jamal Valizadeh: Iran, Greco-Roman wrestling
- Kasra Mehdipournejad: Iran, taekwondo
- Luna Solomon: Eritrea, shooting
- Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi: Iran, judo
- Manizha Talash: Afghanistan, breaking
- Matin Balsini: Iran, swimming
- Mohammad Amin Alsalami: Syria, athletics
- Mohammad Rashnonezhad: Iran, judo
- Muna Dahouk: Syria, judo
- Musa Suliman: Sudan, athletics
- Nigara Shaheen: Afghanistan, judo
- Omid Ahmadisafa: Iran, boxing
- Perina Lokure Nakang: South Sudan, athletics
- Ramiro Mora: Cuba, weightlifting
- Saeid Fazloula: Iran, canoe sprint
- Saman Soltani: Iran, canoe sprint
- Tachlowini Gabriyesos: Eritrea, athletics
- Yahya Al Ghotany: Syria, taekwondo
- Yekta Jamali Galeh: Iran, weightlifting
