Stories of resilience: Meet the Refugee Olympic Team

Thirty-six athletes will be competing as part of the Refugee Olympic Team - a team representing elite athletes who have been forced to flee from their home countries, and the 120 million people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced. 

Here, we explain why the team was formed, and share some of the stories of the incredible athletes involved.

As of May 2024, as per UN figures there are 120 million people worldwide who have been displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. That includes 43.4 million refugees - meaning people who have fled across a border - and 63.3 million internally displaced people - that is, people who have been displaced within their home country. If all forcibly displaced people were in one place, it would create the 14th most populous country in the world. 

The Refugee Olympic Team was created in 2016 by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The team was proposed as a “symbol of hope for all refugees in the world”, and to raise global awareness of the scale of displacement in the world.

To be eligible to compete as part of the Refugee Team, athletes must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognised by UNCHR, the UN Refugee Agency. The team also takes into account balanced representation in terms of sport, gender and regions. 

The Refugee Olympic Team debuted at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with 10 athletes, originally from South Sudan, Syria, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo and competing in athletics, judo and swimming. At the 2020 Summer Olympics - which took place in 2021 - in Tokyo, the team grew to include 29 athletes, who also competed in badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, karate, taekwondo, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling. 

Among the athletes at both Olympics was swimmer Yusra Mardini, who fled Syria with her sister at the age of 15 and endured a treacherous journey on a dinghy to safety; their story is told in the film “The Swimmers”. 

Speaking to Olympics.com, Yusra said of the Refugee Olympic Team: “I want [the world] to know that they’re funny, they’re kind, they’re brave and they have incredible stories. When I met a few of them that were on the team back then, I was truly inspired by the way they approached life. They were so positive and they have a different perspective about the world, and I love that about them.

“I just hope the world will open their hearts and minds to them and hear their stories. [I want them to] be influenced in a good way, to welcome more refugees, to open more doors for refugees, and to support safe passage. But I think we have to learn to educate everyone around us about what a refugee is and why they leave their countries.”

This year, the Refugee Olympic Team has grown again; with 36 athletes hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees competing across 12 sports in Paris. 

The athletes on the team originally come from Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela, and are competing across athletics, judo, taekwondo, swimming, canoe, wrestling, cycling, weightlifting, boxing, shooting, and the (brand new for 2024) sport of breaking – also known as breakdancing. 

The team includes first-time Olympians, members of the 2020 team, and Olympians who competed for their countries of origin before becoming refugees. The team’s acronym was previously ROT but this year, they will compete under the team acronym EOR, from the French équipe olympique des réfugiés. For the first time, the Refugee Olympic Team will also have its own team emblem, featuring a heart; they previously competed under the Olympic flag. 

Masomah Ali Zada, a refugee from Afghanistan who competed in cycling at the 2020 Olympics for the Refugee Olympic Team, is leading the team this year as Chef de Mission. She said that the emblem gives a sense of belonging and “empowers us to also stand for the [refugee population] who share this same experience”. 

Marking World Refugee Day on June 20th, Masomah commented on the impact sport can have on refugees arriving in a new country, often without a network or the local language. “It allows you to integrate into a new community; it gives you hope,” she said. “Most importantly, it’s a tool for you to navigate some of the challenges of being a refugee - it’s a space where you can forget and play… We need to do more to give refugees access to sport at all levels. By welcoming them into our sporting communities, we give them a vital tool for hope, and motivate them to keep going.”

Becoming an Olympian is a monumental feat, with years and years of gruelling training, self-discipline and energy leading up to the Games. But for the refugees competing in Paris, the journey to the Games was even more difficult. 

This year’s athletes were forced to flee their homes due to conflict and persecution, and many of them left behind their beloved sports and communities, training, and even Olympic careers to find safety. 

Adnan Khankan grew up in Damascus and started judo at the age of 10, even making it onto the national junior team. However, he was forced to flee Syria due to the ongoing conflict, and went through a difficult journey to Europe. Speaking to the International Judo Federation, he said: “I travelled via Lebanon to Turkiye. In Turkiye I slept two days in the forest. It was a horrible experience. I really feared for my life. I will never forget that feeling.” Thankfully, he found an opportunity to start an education in Germany, and also a place to restart his judo training, and is now the -100kg judo representative for the Refugee Olympic Team. 

Perina Lokure Nakang was just seven years old when her parents sent her away with her aunt to flee conflict in South Sudan. Separated from her friends and family, she and her aunt crossed into Kenya and settled at the Kakuma Refugee Camp along with thousands of other South Sudanese.

She told Olympics.com: “I left South Sudan in 2010 when I was young with my aunt. They told me that we must leave because people were fighting, there was a war, and it was safer for me to be away. I didn’t even know what the word 'war' meant.” Sadly, Perina’s father was killed in South Sudan; she has just recently been reunited with her mother and siblings, who she could barely remember. 

In the camp, Perina found solace in sports. “In Kakuma, life can be monotonous. Wake up, fetch water, go to school, then back home. Some days, when you are lucky, you have something to eat. If not, as the eldest, the little that is there you leave for the younger ones. Then when I discovered sport, it helped fill my empty and sometimes hard days. I played some basketball, then mostly football, until the day I was drawn to some people running. At first, I didn’t think I was suited for running. One of the coaches encouraged me to try. I started sprinting the 100m and 200m.”

Farzad Mansouri has been to the Olympics before, but not as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. In 2021, he competed in the +80kg category in taekwondo at the Tokyo Olympics for Afghanistan, and was even the country’s flag-bearer in the opening ceremony. But just weeks later, he was forced to flee his home of Kabul when the Taliban took over. Farzad told the BBC: “When I left my country and my house, the only thing I had was my Olympic kit. My only goal was the Olympic Games. I said I will carry on anything I can so I can go to Paris.”

At the age of 19, Farzad managed to get on a US evacuation flight along with his mother, father, brother, sister and niece, and they flew to the United Arab Emirates. Tragically, the day after Farzad and his family landed, his taekwondo teammate Mohammed Jan Sultani was killed in a suicide bomb attack at Kabul Airport. 

In Abu Dhabi, Farzad and his whole family were confined to one room due to Covid restrictions, in a compound housing thousands of Afghan refugees. He got a special exemption to train outside in the compound to continue his athletic dreams, and eventually he received an invitation to train at the GB Taekwondo centre in Manchester, England. After eight long months, speaking little English, he travelled to the UK. He has not seen his parents since, and they will be unable to see him compete at the Olympics as they cannot travel due to their refugee status. 

Breakdancing, or breaking, will be a sport for the first time at the Paris Olympics, and one of the 16 B-girls competing for a medal is Manizha Talesh. Manizha, 21, will compete under the Refugee Olympic Team flag after fleeing her home of Afghanistan when the Taliban took control in 2021. 

She previously lived in Pakistan for a year before being granted asylum in Spain, where she was able to freely continue her breaking training. Now, there are high hopes that Manizha’s time at the Olympics will serve as a symbol of hope for other women and girls in Afghanistan.

A friend and dance colleague of Manizha, Jawad Sezdah, told the Washington Post: “If you ask foreigners about Afghanistan, the only thing that they imagine is like war, guns, old buildings. But no, Afghanistan is not that. Afghanistan is Manizha doing breaking. Afghanistan is me doing rapping. Afghanistan’s not only war.”

Adnan Khankan (Syria) - judo

Alaa Maso (Syria) - swimming

Amir Ansari (Afghanistan) - cycling

Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani (Iran) - canoeing, slalom

Arab Sibghatullah (Afghanistan) - judo

Cindy Mgamba (Cameroon) - boxing 

Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi (Iran) - taekwondo

Dorian Keletela (Democratic Republic of Congo) - athletics

Dorsa Yavarivafa (Iran) - badminton

Eyeru Gebru (Ethiopia) - cycling, road

Farida Abaroge (Ethiopia) - athletics

Farzad Mansouri (Afghanistan) - taekwondo

Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez (Cuba) - canoeing, sprint

Francisco Edilio Centeno Nieves (Venezuela) - shooting 

Hadi Tiranvalipour (Iran) - taekwondo

Iman Mahdavi (Iran) - wrestling, freestyle

Jamal Abdelmaji (South Sudan) - athletics

Jamal Valizadeh (Iran) - wrestling, Greco-Roman

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 (Syria) - boxing 

Perina Lokure Nakang (South Sudan) - athletics

Ramiro Mora (Cuba) - weightlifting

Saeid Fazloula (Iran) - canoeing, sprint

Saman Soltani (Iran) - canoeing, sprint

Tachlowini Gabriyesos (Eritrea) - athletics

Yahya al Ghotani (Syria) - taekwondo

Yekta Jamal Galehi (Iran) - weightlifting

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