Paris Olympics will see largest ever refugee team

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today unveiled its largest ever refugee team in advance of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Reuters has reported. The team will have 36 athletes from 11 different countries and, for the first time, will compete under its own emblem.

The athletes will compete across 12 sports in Paris, and hail from countries including Syria, Sudan, Iran and Afghanistan. Paris will be the third Summer Olympics for which a refugee team has been formed.

“With your participation in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence,” said IOC President Thomas Bach during the team’s announcement. “This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world.”

The IOC unveiled its first refugee team for the Rio 2016 Olympics with 10 athletes. It was an attempt to raise awareness of the issue as hundreds of thousands of people were pouring into Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere escaping conflict and poverty.

The team that competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was already almost three times as big as the inaugural team at the Rio Games, with a total of 29 athletes competing in 12 sports.

The Paris Olympics refugee team announcement comes shortly after Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who ran as a refugee athlete in the 1,500 metres at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics, was suspended after testing positive for a banned substance.

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