Refugees For Rio Olympics 2016
Highly qualified athletes who are refugees will be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time in 2016. This was announced by the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October 2015. Qualified refugee athletes have not been able to participate in the past because they could not represent their home countries and their national Olympic committees. Despite having no national flags or national anthems to be played, refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem. The participation of refugees in the Olympics lies in Principle No. 4 of the Olympics Charter: “The practice of sports is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sports, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”
UNHCR has forged a partnership with the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation which is aimed at identifying, mentoring and training talented refugee athletes in Kenya. The Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation is a registered organization founded by Tegla Chepkite Loroupe, a renowned Kenyan athlete. Between mid-2015 and early 2016, the Tegla Loroupe Foundation helped in the selection of 29 male and female athletes from South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and DRC through trials held at both Kakuma and Dadaab. The Foundation which is also supported by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) has since then trained these athletes at a training facility in Nairobi. On 19th May 2016, the Tegla Loroupe Foundation in collaboration with the National Olympics Committee organised trials for all athletes at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi. From these trials, 10 best performers were selected and forwarded to the National Olympics Committee. From these 10, the IOC will do further analysis and select a team which will join the rest of the Refugee Olympics team for 2016 Olympics at Rio de Jenairo.
The athletes who will not be selected for Rio will remain in the training camp for further training. UNHCR will continue to partner with the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation in training them together with other talented refugee athletes in Kenya and providing them with exposure to other competitions at both national and international level. UNHCR is also exploring ways in which it can expand the sports training package for refugees which can enable them to establish more livelihood opportunities.
Refugee Athletes from Kakuma and Dadaab Camp training for Rio Olympics at Ngong by UNHCR/D.Mwancha
