What's the Refugee Olympic Team and Why We Should Care?

Athletes who have been displaced from their home countries, living as refugees in strange lands, get a chance to compete in the Olympic Games.

It’s really happening in Rio this summer. Under the banner of the Refugee Olympic Team, 10 athletes from four different countries will march in the opening ceremony carrying the Olympic flag. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach says the team is “a symbol of hope for all the refugees in our world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of [the refugee] crisis.”

Two of the ten athletes are already in Rio de Janeiro such as Yolande Bukasa Mabika and Popole Misenga are judo fighters from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were abandoned in Rio by their coach and DRC officials when they came to Brazil to compete in the Judo World Championships in 2013. 

Will Carless/GlobalPost

Mabika said she and Misenga were left in their hotel room, where they stayed scared and starving for three days before she ventured outside.

Mabika said she stopped people on the street who had black skin like hers and tried to explain her situation in French, her first language. Some friendly bystanders directed her and Misenga to a beauty salon run by African immigrants, she said. After four days of sleeping on the floor of the salon, other good Samaritans took them to a neighborhood of Rio that is home to many African immigrants, including some from Congo.

That was three years ago. Now granted refugee status, the two athletes are training in judo again. Mabika has her own home in the perhaps aptly named neighborhood of Bonsucesso (Good success). Misenga has married a local Brazilian woman and has a young son.

Mabika says her story shows that not every refugee tale ends in misery.

“I’m now happy again, for this Olympic competition,” she said. “I’m going to fight in these Olympics to defend all the refugees in the world. I’m not training here to lose. I’m training for victory. God will lift up all refugees to get a good result.”

The athletes are:

• Rami Anis (M): Country of origin – Syria; host NOC – Belgium; sport – swimming
• Yiech Pur Biel (M): Country of origin – South Sudan; host NOC – Kenya; sport – athletics, 800m
• James Nyang Chiengjiek (M): Country of origin – South Sudan; host NOC – Kenya; sport – athletics, 400m
• Yonas Kinde (M): Country of origin – Ethiopia; host NOC – Luxembourg; sport – athletics, marathon
• Anjelina Nada Lohalith (F): Country of origin – South Sudan; host NOC – Kenya; sport – athletics, 1500m
• Rose Nathike Lokonyen (F): Country of origin – South Sudan; host NOC – Kenya; sport – athletics, 800m
• Paulo Amotun Lokoro (M): Country of origin – South Sudan; host NOC – Kenya; sport – athletics, 1500m
• Yolande Bukasa Mabika (F): Country of origin – Democratic Republic of the Congo; host NOC – Brazil; sport – judo, -70kg
• Yusra Mardini (F): Country of origin – Syria; host NOC – Germany; sport – swimming
• Popole Misenga (M): Country of origin – Democratic Republic of the Congo; host NOC – Brazil; sport – judo, -90kg

[Sources: GlobalPost & PRI.org]