51 Athlete Refugees To Participate as a Team in the Upcoming Tokyo Olympics
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) just announced on Tuesday that a team of refugees will compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020! According to The National, the Deputy General Director of the IOC, Pere Miro, said that they identified 51 athletes living in refugee camps or in refugee conditions. 10 of those 51 have already participated at 2016’s Olympics in Rio de Janiero.
“We can expect much. In 2016, just we competed, now we are going not only to compete, we want to see if we can bring gold or reach a final,” said Yiech Pur Biel, a Middle-Distance Runner from South Sudan. Two swimmers who fled the Syrian civil war, two Congolese judokas, and an Ethiopian marathon runner were part of the refugee team that made its debut in Rio. In addition to four middle-distance runners from South Sudan and a 400m runner. The team will be supported by the Olympic Solidarity Programme and will be competing in seven different sports; including karate and taekwondo.
