‘No home, no team, no flag’: first refugee team to compete in Rio Olympics
Yusra Mardini swam for her life from a sinking vessel in the Mediterranean Sea. Now, she’ll be swimming for the gold in Rio.
Mardini, 18, fled the Syrian civil war via sea vessel from Turkey’s shores. When the flimsy boat started taking on water, the swimmer jumped in the water with her sister and began pushing it to the Greek island of Lesvos.
“There were people who didn’t know how to swim,” Mardini said of the approximately 20 other passengers. “It would have been shameful if the people on our boat had drowned. I wasn’t going to sit there and complain that I would drown.”
Mardini, who will swim the 200-meter freestyle, is part of the first refugee team to compete in an Olympic Games. She and nine other athletes selected by the International Olympic Committee will comprise the inaugural refugee team, allowing those from war-torn nations to compete with the world’s best in their sports. Two Syrian swimmers, five South Sudanese track athletes, two judokos from the Democratic Republic of Congo and an Ethiopian marathon runner will be on the team.
“I want to represent all the refugees because I want to show everyone that, after the pain, after the storm, comes calm days,” Mardini said. She has been training with a club in Berlin since her arrival in Germany in September 2015.
According to the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, the athletes have sought to escape violence and instability in their own countries around the world, in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Kenya and Brazil. They were selected from a group of 43 candidates, and will stay in the Olympic village just like other athletes. They will carry the Olympic flag in the opening ceremony.
"These refugees have no home, no team, no flag, no national anthem," IOC President Thomas Bach said Friday. "We will offer them a home in the Olympic Village.”
Popole Misenga, 24, is a middleweight judo athlete who learned the sport at a center for displaced children in the DRC after becoming separated from his family as he fled fighting. He sought asylum in Brazil and says he is competing in Rio to show refugees can do important things.
“In my country, I didn’t have a home, a family or children. The war there caused too much death and confusion,” Misenga said.
UNHCR called the new refugee team “a major milestone” in its partnership with the IOC to promote sports in the well-being of refugees around the world.
“We are very inspired by the Refugee Olympic Athletes team – having had their sporting careers interrupted, these high-level refugee athletes will finally have the chance to pursue their dreams,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
According to the U.N. agency, at the end of 2014, the global population of refugees, internally displaced people and asylum seekers reached a record 59.5 million. It has increased further since then as the world struggles to deal with the largest migration crisis since World War II.
The Syrian Civil War has raged since 2011, displacing millions. South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, has been embroiled in civil war since 2013. The DRC has been unstable since gaining independence in 1960, and Ethiopia has lingering violence and economic instability following decades of civil war and a conflict with neighboring Eritrea.
“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,” Misenga said. “I will win a medal, and will dedicate it to all refugees.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 1:26 PM with the headline "‘No home, no team, no flag’: first refugee team to compete in Rio Olympics."