What made you fall in love with sports when you were a kid? I’m betting large amounts that it was the spirit of competition. As adults – and you have to be one to bet on sports – we’re more easily jaded by the “real world” of professional sports organizations and the athletes they claim to serve.
The International Olympic Committee is no exception. But if you look closely enough, through all the backroom wheeling and dealing, you can see why billions of people around the world still care about the Olympic Games, and what they’re meant to represent: Swifter, Higher, Stronger.
That’s why I’m not going to let all this “sports entertainment” ruin the actual sports we’ll see at the 2024 Summer Olympics, which begin this Wednesday in Paris – although the Opening Ceremony isn’t until Friday. We’ll see athletes from 206 nations at that ceremony, plus one team that traditionally competes under the Olympic flag: the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. And it’s their story I want to highlight for a moment here.
What is the Refugee Olympic Team?
Back in 2016, the IOC announced they were going to select 5-10 refugees from around the world to compete at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro as the Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes. This was quickly shortened to Refugee Olympic Team, country code ROT.
With the help of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the IOC whittled their initial pool of 43 candidates down to 10, including five originally from South Sudan. Their participation was meant to put the spotlight on the “worldwide refugee crisis,” and serve as a “symbol of hope” for the roughly 100 million people across the globe who have been forced to flee their homes.
For the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo (held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), the Refugee team’s country code was changed to EOR, which stands for Equipe Olympique des Refugies in French. The team expanded from 10 to 29 athletes, and it’ll be even bigger this year with 37 athletes participating in Paris across 12 different sports. They might even be debuting their own flag at Friday’s Opening Ceremony, depending on whose reports are accurate.
Who Is on the Refugee Olympic Team?
This year’s EOR squad features 14 athletes originally from Iran, including boxer Omid Ahmadisafa, swimmer Matin Balsini and judoka Mahboubeh Barbari Zharfi. They’re among a group of 30-plus athletes who have fled Iran in recent years, seeking refuge from both political persecution and the corruption of their sports federations.
Also on the EOR team is boxer Cindy Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon but fights out of Bolton in Greater Manchester. Not only does Ngamba face persecution in Cameroon, where her LGBTQ+ status is punishable by up to five years in prison, she was also on the verge of being deported by UK authorities in 2019.
Why Does the Refugee Olympic Team Matter?
Because they represent over 100 million people who need our attention. But even if you put the geopolitics aside, the EOR team is a meaningful opportunity for displaced athletes to train and compete at the highest levels. Unable to join the Great Britain team without UK citizenship, Ngamba qualified for Paris under the EOR banner, defeating Kazakhstan’s Valentina Khalzova this past March in the women’s 75kg quarter-finals for a tournament held in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Which brings us back full circle to what the Olympic Games, and sports in general, are supposed to provide both the performers and their audience. If watching Ngamba and her fellow refugees compete in Paris doesn’t give you hope that we can all overcome our daily struggles, no matter the obstacles put in our path, what can I tell you: You’re watching the Olympics wrong.
