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June 4, 2016

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Refugee team for Rio named

THE International Olympic Committee yesterday unveiled its first ever team of refugees which will have 10 members and 12 officials and will compete at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games under the Olympic flag.

On what IOC President Thomas Bach called a “historic day”, the team includes five athletes from South Sudan, two from Syria, two from Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Ethiopia.

“These refugee athletes have no home, no team, no flag, no national anthem,” Bach said. “The invention of this refugee team is to give them a home in the Olympic village together with all the athletes around the world.”

The athletes, six men and four women, will compete in the sports of swimming, judo and athletics.

They include swimmer Yusra Mardini of Syria who trains in Germany, South Sudanese middle distance runner Rose Nathike Lokonyen, living in a refugee camp in Kenya, and DRC judoka Yolande Bukasa Mabika, training in Brazil.

“The Olympic anthem will be played in their honor, the Olympic flag will lead them into the stadium,” Bach said in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The team will be housed in the athletes’ village along with all other national teams and will enter the stadium as the penultimate team at the opening ceremony, ahead of the host nation.




 

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