'This Year's Largest' Refugee Team... 37 Refugee Athletes Participating [Paris Olympics]

15 Countries Including Afghanistan and Iran Compete in 12 Events
Refugee Team Established in 2015, Largest Ever This Year
Most Train While Earning a Living
"Sports Are the Only Hope," "Wishing for World Peace"

"The very fact that I am participating in the Olympics will be a message to refugees and all the children of Afghanistan."

Maniza Talasai, a 21-year-old athlete competing in the women's breakdance category at the 2024 Paris Olympics, said this in a recent interview with The Guardian. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, she left her homeland with her dance crew and settled in Spain. At 17, she started dancing after watching breakdance videos. Having secretly learned breakdance in Afghanistan, Talasai now proudly showcases her dance on the global stage.

Maniza Talashi, a refugee team athlete participating in the women's breakdance event at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Photo by herself on SNS)

On the 26th (local time), the refugee delegation, entering second after Greece?the birthplace of the ancient Olympics?at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, is drawing attention. Thirty-seven athletes who reached the Olympic stage as national representatives through sports but fled their countries due to tragic events such as civil wars are now pursuing their dreams on the international stage as refugees.

The Refugee Team is a special team formed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow athletes who have left their homelands due to unavoidable reasons such as civil war, war, and discrimination to compete at the Olympics. This is the third time the team has been formed, following the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. When the team was first formed in 2016, it consisted of about 10 athletes in three sports, but it has since expanded and is now the largest ever.

The Refugee Team competing in this Olympics includes 37 athletes from 15 countries such as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Cuba, Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, participating in 12 sports including taekwondo, cycling, swimming, and judo. The athletes individually prepared for the Olympics in Western countries with IOC support and gathered in Bayeux, a city in the northern Normandy region of northwestern France, from the 18th, just before the opening ceremony, for a pre-camp.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

The refugee athletes, who have struggled to set foot on French soil, place great significance on simply participating in the Olympics. Although they risked their lives to leave their homelands and settle in Western countries, continuing their athletic careers while making a living was not easy.

Like Talasai, Farzad Mansouri, a taekwondo athlete from Afghanistan on the Refugee Team, competed as Afghanistan’s national representative at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 at the age of 19 and also served as a flag bearer at the opening ceremony. However, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, he fled his country, passing through a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi before evacuating to Manchester, UK. He said, "A teammate from the taekwondo national team died in a bombing at Kabul airport. That was a really difficult moment. Now, I sincerely hope my country and the whole world can find peace."

Refugee team Taekwondo athlete Farzad Mansouri from Afghanistan (Photo by himself SNS)

Iman Madavi, a 29-year-old wrestling athlete from Iran, settled in Italy via Turkey in 2020. Working as a security guard at a club in Milan while training, he said, "When I became a refugee, wrestling was my only hope. At first, I couldn’t train at the club, so I started running to avoid stress." The Guardian reported that he has an Olympic rings tattoo on his chest.

Farida Abaroge, an athletics athlete who left Ethiopia in 2016 and settled in France in 2017, is competing in the women's 1500m event. At 23, she struggled to leave her country, traveling through Sudan, Egypt, and Libya before finally arriving in France. During this journey, she was unable to eat properly and suffered a medical accident, but with active support from local French authorities and refugee charities, she was able to resume training. Currently, she works packing parcels in a warehouse in Strasbourg while training, and with IOC’s help, she took two months of unpaid leave to participate in the Olympics.

Athlete Parida Abaroge competing as part of the Refugee Team at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Photo by IOC Official Website)

Abaroge said, "When I arrived alone in France, they asked me what ignites passion in my life, and I answered sports. Then they bought me running shoes, and I started running wearing them." She added, "All the staff I work with in the warehouse are cheering for me."

The youngest member of the Refugee Team, 20-year-old badminton player Dorsa Yabaribafa, left Iran to compete in the Olympics. Due to Iran’s culture of strictly separating women’s and men’s sports, Yabaribafa’s father, who encouraged her to play badminton but never watched a match, is expected to be able to watch his daughter’s games at this Olympics.

Meanwhile, among the Refugee Team athletes competing in this Olympics, the one with the highest medal prospects is boxer Cindy Ngambada. She left Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal, and is training in the UK. The Guardian reported that Ngambada is the most likely to win a medal as a member of the Refugee Team.