The International Olympic Committee has scheduled a summit of sports leaders on June 21 to harmonize policy on eligibility for the games. “I want to be part of the Refugee Olympic Athletes team to keep dreaming, to give hope to all refugees and take sadness out of them”, he says.
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“We didn’t eat for at least two days, we were very hungry”, Mabika recalled. Smith won a silver medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – IOC President Thomas Bach refused to be drawn on whether it could allow some Russian athletes in the Rio de Janeiro Games even if the country’s track and field team remains banned over state-sponsored doping allegations.
Thursday’s allocation of 65 million reais (around 18.5 million USA dollars) in funding for Zika studies will be used on the prevention, diagnoses and treatment of infections caused by the Zika virus, according to the press release. Formal ratification will come at the full International Olympic Committee session in Rio de Janeiro in August on the eve of the games.
Experts say Zika is to blame for a surge in cases in Latin America of microcephaly – a serious birth defect in which babies are born with unusually small heads and brains.
The participation of a refugee team in the Olympics represents a major milestone in UNHCR’s long-standing partnership with the IOC.
“This is no public health risk with Zika” that would warrant postponing or moving the games, Nuzman said.
Dr Chan said the World Health Organization, which in February declared the epidemic to be a global emergency, would again review its position regarding the Olympics taking place in Rio de Janeiro.
“The rate of infection drops to very low numbers, very near zero”, Rio spokesman Mario Andrada said.
“Based on current assessment, cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the global spread of Zika virus”, the agency said Saturday.
Nuzman said leading athletes such as Usain Bolt, Rafael Nadal, Neymar and members of the USA basketball team have said they have no worries about going to Rio.
Brazil has been severely affected by Zika, with nearly two million people infected, and Senator Shaheen has expressed concern an Olympics, featuring athletes and watched by spectators from around the world, could cause it to spread further afield.
Mabika and Misenga chose to stay in Brazil and request asylum.
With Brazil in the midst of its worst recession since the 1930s, Rio Olympic organizers have been forced to cut budgets.
The IOC has already said it would contribute a total of $1.5 billion to Rio organizers from TV and sponsorship revenues. She was named COC president last November.
Andrada also said ticket sales are picking up – with 67 percent sold, or 4 million out of the 6 million available.
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“Athletes have to take all of this information, all of the facts into consideration and then make their own decision”, she said.
