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Refugee Olympians Receive ‘One Of The Biggest Cheers Of The Evening’ at 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Gabe Ortiz on

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The IOC Refugee Olympic Team was met with resounding applause at Friday’s opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. They were led by Cameroon-born boxer Cindy Ngamba and Syria-born taekwondo athlete Yahya Al Ghotany, who had the honor of being designated flag bearers for what is only the third-ever Olympic team composed of displaced individuals from around the world. 

“Traveling behind Greece, which traditionally leads the parade of nations, the refugee team’s boat was second in a fleet of 94 carrying national delegations down the Seine, and received one of the biggest cheers of the evening,” UNHCR writes. 

The Cut detailed the stories of some of the 37 refugee athletes competing in Paris over the next several weeks. “The Refugee Olympic Team wants more than just medals. These athletes hope to remind us of what refugees can achieve”:

“Most refugees, they have a lot of potential and a lot of objectives, dreams,” says Masomah Ali Zada, a 28-year-old Tokyo 2020 cycling alumna originally from Afghanistan and this year’s team leader and representative. “But because they have left their country, lost everything, and left everything behind, they cannot go ahead.” Originally from Afghanistan, Ali Zada spent her early years in exile in Iran after the Taliban took control of her village when she was about 2 years old. Denied asylum, she explains, her family “didn’t have the right to go to school or to work or to rent a house,” at least not through official channels. Though she returned to Afghanistan as an 11-year-old, her family left again in 2017 as the Taliban prepared to reclaim power. When she resettled in France, any aspirations of competitive cycling felt “impossible, just a dream in my head,” she says. And yet, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, Ali Zada became the first refugee in France to receive an IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship. Now, she wants the team to serve as a reminder of resilience, not just to her fellow athletes but to all refugees: “The members of the Refugee Olympic Team, they did it. They realized their dream, they worked hard.” The message to those watching: “You can also do that.”

Ali Zada carried the Olympic torch through Orléans earlier this month. Her teammate, Ethiopia-born cyclist Eyeru Gebru, carried the flame in May, becoming one of the first refugee Olympians to do so. “Being selected to carry the Olympic flame is a big honour for me. I am so happy and proud of myself,” she said at the time.

The IOC Refugee Olympic Team “was created for the Rio Olympics in 2016 as a symbol of hope and to call attention to the plight of refugees worldwide,” the AP recently reported. “The refugee athletes will compete in 12 sports, but for many, their journey to Paris is already a victory in itself.” 

Muna Dahouk, a judoka from Syria, had been practicing since she was six. “But a civil war in her country put an end to her practice for nine years,” The Cut reported. “After her father died, her mother feared for the family’s safety, moving them piecemeal to the Netherlands. Dahouk and her sister spent two years alone in Syria, waiting to join their mother and brother.”

While she finally arrived safely in the Netherlands in 2019, judo wasn’t a priority, the report continued. She was simply trying to get her life back together. At the urging of fellow refugee athletes, she joined the local club but also felt anger over the years of practice she’d lost out on. “But she kept working at it, eventually gaining the support of the International Judo Federation, before qualifying for Tokyo — and winning a spot on the Refugee Team — in 2021.” She said it was “magical.”

The IOC Refugee Olympic Team shared the wonderful moment when athletes found out they’d be going to Paris to compete:

“I’m just one of millions,” flag bearer Ngamba said earlier. “There are many refugees out there, just like me, who have not been given the opportunity [that we have], who will be watching the Olympics – and hopefully we can inspire them to believe in themselves and believe that through hard work, through hardship, you can strive in life and achieve miracles.” The game schedule and ongoing results for IOC Refugee Olympic Team members is here. 

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