A Venezuelan boxer, among the members
The Tokyo Olympics refugee team will consist of 29 athletes in 12 sports, including a Venezuelan boxer based in Trinidad and Tobago and a Rio de Janeiro 2016 medalist who left Iran after denouncing institutional sexism.
The International Olympic Committee announced yesterday the members of the team, made up of a list of 55 athletes who fled their countries and received scholarships to compete in the Games.
Eldric Sella is one of them. The 24-year-old Venezuelan will participate in Tokyo boxing in the middleweight category, with a limit of 75 kilograms.
Like many other compatriots, Sella left Venezuela in the midst of the severe social and economic crisis that plagues the country, with a scenario of high four-digit inflation.
Sella became part of the youth team. He participated in an invitational tournament in Trinidad and decided to remain in refugee status.
Kimia Alizadeh is another refugee, five years after she became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal. He took bronze in taekwondo at age 18.
Alizadeh lives in Germany, after leaving Iran, and has been critical of the mandatory wearing of the hijab.
“I feel very good that I made this decision for my life and that it would definitely change my future,” he told reporters in Germany in January last year.
The group of 29 – an increase of 10 from the inaugural refugee team in Rio de Janeiro 2016 – also includes athletes from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Congo, Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Iraq, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria. Nine are from Syria, the largest number from the same country.
They will compete in swimming, athletics, badminton, boxing, boating, cycling, judo, karate, sport shooting, tae kwon do, weightlifting and Greco-Roman wrestling.
“They are an integral part of the Olympic community and we welcome them with open arms,” IOC President Thomas Bach told the athletes during the selection announcement, adding that “it sends a powerful message of solidarity, resilience and hope to the world”.
Swimmer Yusra Mardini will become a two-time Olympian after participating in the 100-meter freestyle and butterfly in Rio.
“I feel very, very fortunate to be part of the team,” Mardini said in a press conference with the IOC and acknowledged that it is “a great responsibility” to represent the 80 million refugees in the world.
The team will be led by leaders of the IOC in Tokyo and the United Nations refugee agency based in Geneva, UNHCR.
