The foundation and the refugee Olympic team, Princess of Asturias of Sports

The foundation and the refugee Olympic team were honored this Wednesday with the 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports. The jury chaired by former athlete Abel Antón decided to award the award to the foundation and team created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the High Commissioner of the United Nations (Acnur) “for the opportunity it offers athletes in conflict zones and places where human rights are violated to develop their sporting and personal activities.” “The refugee Olympic team combines the highest values ​​of sport, such as integration, education, solidarity and humanity, and represents a message of hope for the world,” highlighted the minutes of the Princess of Asturias of Sports, to which they also aspired , among 24 candidates, Carolina Marín, Simone Biles, Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi and Allyson Felix.

The refugee Olympic team competed for the first time at the Rio 2012 Games, with ten athletes representing Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and South Sudan participating in athletics, judo and swimming. At the Tokyo 2020 Games held last year, the award-winning team was made up of 29 athletes, from thirteen national committees, who competed in twelve disciplines. The winners succeed the Paralympic swimmer Teresa Perales in the list of winners of the Princess of Asturias for Sports. The winning bid for the 2022 edition was presented by Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, Vice President of the IOC and supported, among others, by Pau Gasol.

According to the IOC’s top leader, Thomas Bach, also president of the foundation’s board of directors, the winners “aim to be a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world”, in addition to “raising awareness of one of the most important crises to facing the international community and using sport as a means of humanitarian aid, cooperation and development of people affected by conflicts at the international level.

The Olympic Refugee Foundation works with international organizations, private sector companies, non-governmental organizations and other foundations to establish and foster cooperative programs through sport. So far, around 200,000 young people have benefited from its projects in eight countries: Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Turkey and Uganda.

The foundation is also responsible for the refugee Olympic team, created by the IOC in 2015, when the highest body asked the different national committees to identify, in collaboration with UNHCR, refugee athletes whose sporting level had the potential to qualify for the Games, in order to offer them the opportunity to do so through funding provided by scholarships from the Olympic Solidarity aid project. The team has the same consideration as any other team that participates in the Olympic Games.