Olympic Refuge Foundation and Refugee Olympic Team grow partnership ahead of Paris 2024 Olympics
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Updated 10/06/2024 at 16:26 GMT+1
The Refugee Olympic Team had 29 athletes competing in 12 sports at Tokyo 2020 and that number could grow at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Ahead of the Games, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach went to visit the went to visit the Olympic Refuge Foundation's flagship programme in Paris, Terrains d’Avenir and invited 10 displaced young people to attend an event with him at the Games.
IOC president Thomas Bach (centre, middle row) at Terrains d’Avenir
Image credit: TNT Sports
The Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) and the International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team will continue to promote the inclusion of young people affected by displacement through sport ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Refugee Olympic Team was made up of 10 athletes when they first competed at Rio in 2016, and in Tokyo the team grew to 29 athletes competing in 12 sports.
The ORF Board, chaired by IOC president Thomas Bach, and vice-chair UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi, recently went to visit the ORF’s flagship programme in Paris, Terrains d’Avenir.
The programme, which includes a wide range of implementing partners, aims to provide 7,000 young people affected by displacement with access to sport by 2025, and to shape a movement which will continue to have an impact long after the Olympic Games.
Ahead of the Games, the ORF will work to build a strong connection between the Refugee Olympic Team and displaced communities living in the Ile de France region.
During the visit, Bach personally invited 10 displaced young people engaged in the Terrains d’Avenir programme to attend an event with him at the Games in 2024 and support the EOR.
He said: “The athletes of the Refugee Olympic Team demonstrate to a global audience that we are all part of the same humanity.
“Their participation in the Olympic Games is a clear signal that refugees are our fellow human beings – that they are an enrichment to society just as they are an enrichment to our Olympic community.
“Through its work, the Olympic Refuge Foundation will connect the Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with displaced communities, and in particular refugees who live in and around Paris.”
UN high commissioner for refugees Grandi added: “Sport truly transcends boundaries and brings people together.
“There are few better ways to support refugees to recover from experiences of trauma and alienation than to include them in their new society through sport – we have witnessed this in action.”
There are also seven new Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders, bringing the total number to 53 ahead of Paris 2024.
The athletes on the Refugee Athlete Support programme will be aiming to be selected for the Refugee Olympic Team Paris at the Games.
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