The Paris Olympics will feature a Refugee Team, comprising 36 athletes from 11 countries who have been chosen from over 70 scholarships. The team, known as EOR or Equipe Olympique des Refugies, will have their own emblem featuring a heart surrounded by arrows representing how lost refugees can find their way back. The team chef de mission, Masomah Ali Zada from Afghanistan, spoke about the importance of having their own emblem and expressed her excitement in proudly wearing it.
There will be a total of 23 men and 13 women competing in various sports such as athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoeing, cycling, judo, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling. Notable athletes include Cindy Ngamba and Farida Abaroge among the women and Kasra Mehdipournejad from Iran in taekwondo and Edilio Francisco Centeno Nieves from Venezuela in shooting among the men.
However, on Tuesday, a third runner on the team was suspended for a positive doping test. The refugee team was initially created by the IOC for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to provide asylum for athletes who have been forced to leave their home countries. In Rio, there were 10 athletes on the team with Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini becoming the first to compete. Three years ago in Tokyo, the team grew to 29 athletes across 12 sports.
