Interim Brazilian President Michel Temer inaugurated a much-anticipated subway line in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, just days before the opening of the Olympics in the city. He still talks of competing for his country of birth maybe at the next Olympics.
Advertisement
The 10 athletes on the global refugee delegation at Rio 2016 represent many things.
From Yusra Mardini, a teenage swimmer from Syria who braved a Mediterranean crossing in a leaky dinghy, to Popole Misenga, who spent eight days hiding in a forest as a terrified child to flee bloody fighting, each of the refugee athletes have overcome daunting odds to maintain their Olympic dreams.
Rio’s Olympics that open this Friday and run through August 21 are the first to include a team entirely of refugees, which includes ten athletes from four countries who will compete under the Olympic flag.
“It is a special team. It’s not an easy team”, said Tegla Loroupe, the ROT’s chef de mission. “Although their country is broken, the spirit of unity and of Olympism is always with them”. I have two brothers, I don’t know what they will look like now as we were separated when we were small.
“It was sports that give them wisdom and confidence to fight for life and not to lose hope”, she added.
“We’ve asked Rio to enforce a very strict non-smoking policy”, Chiller says, “At the moment it’s not. We feel sad of course because of the wars in our countries”, Anis said. “So I send hugs and kisses to my brothers”.
Judoka Popole Misenga is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I answer with my Portuguese because Brazil is now my home”, said Mabika, 28, who lived a precarious life sleeping on Rio’s streets but she said never forgot the strength and discipline she learned from the sport she first picked up while living in a Kinshasa orphanage.
Misenga, 24, moved members of the press to tears and then drew a round of applause after he became emotional speaking about the brothers he has not seen in years.
Mardini, who has now settled in Germany with her family, says she will proudly represent Syria, the Olympic movement and her recently adopted homeland when she competes in Brazil. God will help me and I am here to make history.
“I hope there are no more refugees in 2020, and we can compete under our flag”, the Belgium-based Anis said. “People ask if they can win a medal”.
The International Olympic Committee hopes that the team will “act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis”.
Advertisement
“It is a signal to the worldwide community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society”, he said. Local organizers “jumped together” following athletes’ complaints and were “eager” to resolve them.
