The refugee staff for the Paris Olympics will component 36 athletes from 11 nations in 12 sports activities.
They have been picked from greater than 70 scholarships, Global Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach mentioned on the staff announcement on Thursday.
Rather of competing underneath the Olympic flag, the refugees have their very own logo that includes a middle at its centre, surrounded via arrows symbolising how misplaced refugees can to find their long ago. The staff will probably be recognized underneath the acronym EOR from the French title Equipe Olympique des Refugies.
“Having our own emblem creates a sense of belonging, and empowers us to also stand for the population of more than 100 million people who share this same experience,” mentioned Masomah Ali Zada of Afghanistan, the staff chef de undertaking who competed in girls’s biking on the Tokyo Video games. “I cannot wait to wear it proudly.”
A complete of 23 males and 13 girls will compete in athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoeing, biking, judo, capturing, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling on the Video games settingup on July 24.
Boxer Cindy Ngamba and Ethiopian runner Farida Abaroge are some of the girls. Kasra Mehdipournejad, an Iranian taekwondo athlete residing in Germany, and shooter Edilio Francisco Centeno Nieves from Venezuela are some of the males.
“My Olympic dream is coming true,” Mehdipournejad mentioned.
On Tuesday, a 3rd runner at the staff was once suspended for a favorable doping take a look at.
The refugee staff was once created via the IOC for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to permit athletes to book competing, although they have got been compelled to drop their house nations.
There have been 10 athletes in Rio, with Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini changing into the primary to compete. 3 years in the past in Tokyo the quantity was once 29 throughout 12 sports activities.
