The Refugee Olympic Athlete Team participated for the first time in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games with the presence of 10 athletes, which increased to 29 at Tokyo 2020 and an even larger delegation is expected in Paris 2024.
To this end, the Olympic Refuge Foundation announced that 10 new athletes will receive a scholarship to help them prepare to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and thus join the 53 who were already part of the program funded by the International Olympic Committee.
“The athletes are from 12 countries, live in 23 host countries and represent 13 sports,” the IOC explained, stressing that for the first time the Danish National Olympic Committee will be part of the program. The 10 new athletes awarded scholarships are:
- Amir Ansari (cycling, Afghanistan, NOC host: Sweden)
- Edilio Francisco Centeno Nieves (shooting, Venezuela, NOC host: México)
- Hadi Tiranvalipour (Taekwondo, Iran, NOC host: Italy)
- Mahdia Sharifi (Taekwondo, Afghanistan, NOC host: Italy)
- Marialejandra Coromoto Centeno Nieves (shooting, Venezuela, NOC host: Mexico)
- Mohammad Rashnonezhad (judo, Iran, NOC host: Holland)
- Omar Hassan Omar (athletics, Ethiopia, NOC venue: Denmark)
- Omid Ahmadisafa (boxing, Iran, NOC host: Germany)
- Roberto Gabriel Mujica Silva (Taekwondo, Venezuela, NOC host: Peru)
- Roima Indonesia Mujica Silva (Taekwondo, Venezuela, NOC host: Peru)
The Olympic Team for Refugee Athletes was announced by the German Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, at the UN General Assembly in 2015 and the objective was to “raise awareness of the global refugee crisis”.
The scholarship program began after participating in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and this year for the first time one of the members won an international competition: Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who at the age of six escaped from South Sudan and arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya), won the European Cup of Cross Country Champion Clubs in Castellón, Spain.
The medal winners at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest
Olympic Solidarity is the name of the program by which the International Olympic Committee helps not only refugee athletes, but also that funds are available to all National Olympic Committees, especially those most in need.
At the recent World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, two of the world champions received these Olympic scholarships: Marileidy Paulino won the 400 meters and became the first woman to win a gold medal in a World Cup for the Dominican Republic, while Hugues Fabrice Zango gave Burkina Faso a historic title in triple jump.
Sada Williams (from Barbados, bronze in 400 meters), Kyron McMaster (from British Virgin Islands, silver in the 400 with fences), Letsile Tebogo (from Botswana, silver in the 100 meters and bronze in the 200), Kristjan Ceh (from Slovenia, silver in disc), Mykolas Alekna (from Lithuania, bronze in disc), Ernest John Obiena (from the Philippines, silver in pole vaulting), Lindon Victor (from Granada, bronze in Decathlon) and Arshad Nadeem (from Pakistan, silver in silver in discus, jabalina), were the other Olympic Solidarity athletes who managed to get on the podium in Budapest.
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