By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Members of the refugee Olympic team will have their voices heard around the world during the Paris Games, increasing awareness for millions of displaced people, but they are equally ambitious in the hunt for medals, the team’s flag bearers said on Tuesday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has assembled its largest refugee team to date for the 2024 Games starting on Friday, with 37 athletes.
The athletes, from countries including Syria, Sudan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran and Afghanistan, will compete across 12 sports in Paris, the third time such a team has been formed for the Summer Olympics.
“Just for our name ‘refugee Olympic team’ to be called out, refugees all around the world will acknowledge us,” Cameroon-born boxer Cindy Ngamba, currently based in Britain, told Reuters.
“We are seen as a team, we are seen as athletes, as fighters, hungry athletes who are part of a family.
“We are not afraid, not ashamed and are proud to be refugees. We know we are not with them but we can feel the energy.”
The IOC unveiled its first refugee team for the Rio 2016 Games with 10 athletes to raise awareness of the issue as hundreds of thousands of people were pouring into Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere escaping conflict and poverty.
The team that competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was already almost three times bigger than the Rio team, with 29 athletes.
But the team in Paris is the largest while also having its own emblem.
“It matters 100%,” Ngamba said of the emblem. “The foundation is about the team, about a family. Being part of the unique family is what it is all about.
“We competed individually in the past, or 2-3 of us. Now we are a big group, a family going out there to represent the refugee team. We will hold our head high and be proud of the team we are part of.
“It shows we are not just refugees, we are athletes. (People) see us as refugees but forget we are athletes with the same goals as the other countries represented here. We can achieve the same thing, win the same thing, have the same drive, the same hunger and the same energy.”
For co-flagbearer Yahya Al Ghotany, who was forced to leave war-torn Syria and will compete in taekwondo, the team was sending a message of hope. Al Ghotany only picked up the sport once he was at a refugee camp in Jordan.
“It is a wonderful feeling knowing I am representing many people who have gone through the same experience as me, just like me,” he told Reuters. “Representing more than 100 million displaced people across the globe.”
“It is very important because it sends a message of hope. There is always hope in passion,” he added.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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