100 days after the Russian invasion Thomas Bach reinforces the role of sport among refugees in Madrid

On the eve of the 100th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, said goodbye to Madrid with historic steps in creating more social spaces for refugees through sport.

Spain has welcomed more than 130,000 Ukrainians since the start of the war on February 24, who have joined tens of thousands of other refugees on the Iberian Peninsula.

The Spanish Olympic Movement has contributed initiatives the IOC has urged to be imitated elsewhere.

The main leaders of Spain, King Felipe VI and the Head of Government Pedro Sánchez, have received Bach separately, who in his 36 hours in Madrid has tried to avoid public references to the situation of the local Olympic bid for the Winter Games in 2030.

Only in an instant during his visit to the Sports Center for Refugees in the municipality of Getafe, and to a question from the press, Bach expressed confidence in the role of the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) Alejandro Blanco to lead the process.

Almost a year after its inauguration, around 200 refugees already use the facilities of this sports center.

Bach presented Alejandro Blanco with the IOC President’s Trophy.

According to a statement from the Royal House, the King received Bach in an audience with the IOC Refugee Commission, whose members include the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Italian Filippo Grandi.

Bach and his companions presented in the Spanish capital the new centers for the reception of refugees that are going to be built in which sport, in coordination with the COE, “will be the catalyst for the integration of refugees with Spanish society.”

The essence of these projects was reflected in the Memorandum signed with the COE and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

This audience with the King was also attended by Blanco; vice president of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch; the advisor to the president of the IOC, Pere Miró and the Spanish members of the IOC, the former basketball player Pau Gasol and the president of the International Triathlon Union, Marisol Casado.

The official note recalled the IOC “is in charge of selecting the cities that will host the Olympic Games every four years”, at a time when the possibility of Spain presenting a candidacy from the Pyrenees to the Olympic Games is being debated.

This “Olympic meeting” at the Royal House was held a few weeks after the 30th anniversary of the historic Barcelona Olympic Games in which the then Prince Felipe was the standard-bearer for the Spanish delegation at the opening ceremony on July 25.

Madrid was also the venue for the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Olympic Refugee Foundation, which signed a new Memorandum with the U.N. Refugee Agency to expand cooperation and reaffirm the commitment to take advantage of sport to protect and support young people affected by displacement worldwide due to wars and conflicts.

“In these difficult times, we need more than ever the mission of sport to promote peace and solidarity,” said Bach. This project together with the Refugee Olympic Team, already participating in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, were recently awarded the 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports.

In this context, the best player in the history of Spanish basketball and former NBA star, Pau Gasol, was decorated by President Pedro Sánchez with the highest distinction that Spain awards its athletes: the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sports Merit.

This award was given for the first time in 1986 to the Mayor of Barcelona Pasqual Maragall and Juan Antonio Samaranch, then President of the IOC.

Gasol was elected on August 4, 2021 as an IOC member representing the athletes and on May 20, 2022 as a member of the IOC Ethics Commission at the end of the 139th IOC Session.

The Ethics Commission is currently chaired by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Questioned by the press about the Olympic bid for 2030 in which the communities of Aragon and Catalonia do not agree, Gasol considered that “the COE is very involved and I hope it will be resolved”

“I have the hope that the political part is left aside and that sports and the interest of the country are above everything,” he added.

Gasol, now retired, participated with the Spanish team in five Olympic Games and won silver in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and bronze in Rio 2016. He was world champion in 2006 and three times European champion (2009, 2011 and 2015). He played 18 seasons in the NBA, winning two titles with the L.A. Lakers.