The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced their initial list of 44 athletes, including two swimmers, awarded the Olympic Scholarships for Refugee Athletes as they work towards being selected to the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Today, June 20, 2022 is World Refugee Day as well.
A total of 44 athletes are included on the initial list. They come from 12 countries (Afghanistan, Cameroon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela) and have 16 National Olympic Committees as hosts. The 44 athletes are also from a total of 12 sports.
Included in the list are two swimmers: Alaa Maso and Eyad Masoud. Maso competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. He swam in prelims of the 50 freestyle swimming a time of 23.30 to finish 44th.
Masoud has previously been on the scholarship as well although he did not compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Both Mason and Masoud fled Syria. Maso currently trains in Germany, and Masoud currently trains in New Zealand.
From the initial group of 44 athletes, three are completely new to the scholarship program. 23 of the athletes had been members of either the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Rio (2016) and/or in Tokyo (2020).
IOC President Thomas Bach spoke to the athletes saying, “We welcome you to the Olympic community and wish you luck in qualification. I know what a difficult period it is to go through to qualify for the Olympic Games, and so we admire how you are meeting the challenge given all the difficulties you have overcome.”
The scholarships are funded by the IOC through the Olympic Solidary program which provides the selected refugee athletes with support to allow them to continue to train and compete as they prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Three athletes are on transition scholarships which means they are in the process of becoming citizens within their host countries.
The scholarship was established after the first IOC Refugee Olympic Team competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The Refugee Team was originally created in 2015 by the IOC to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis.
The 2016 IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Rio was made up of ten athletes, including two swimmers, Rami Anis and Yusra Mardini. Anis competed in prelims of the 100 free (54.25 for 56th) and 100 fly (56.23 for 40th). Mardini competed in prelims of the 100 free (1:04.66) and 100 fly (1:09.21).
The 2020 IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo grew to 29 athletes including two swimmers. As mentioned above, Maso swam in prelims of the 50 freestyle swimming a time of 23.30 to finish 44th. Mardini swam in her second straight Olympics after swimming in prelims of the 100 fly. She swam a time of 1:06.78 to finish 33rd.
The 2024 IOC Refugee Olympic Team for Paris will be announced in 2024.
I am omid from Afghanistan I tried hard to reach to the Olympic committee to give me a chance to run for refugee team actually I came recently to United state in 2021 and reach here as wel but no one respond me. You made the group of I think 52 athletes which need a very hard training just for taking part in Olympic you didn’t train them to achieve gold that is the problem with Olympic committee they just look for young faces with dreams not hard workers. If you study my comment please reach me I need to take a part I am waiting from a long ago to show the world that there are thousand faces that… Read more »