IOC Refugee Olympic Team Supported by DOSB: Inspiring Resilience and Excellence

“As the DOSB, we fully support the IOC’s initiative to create and promote this team in 2016,” said DOSB President Thomas Weikert. Each and every one of them is “a very special role model for the unfortunately far too high number of people who find themselves in a similar situation around the world and have had to leave their homeland involuntarily,” Weikert explained.

“By taking part in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence,” said IOC President Thomas Bach: “In doing so, you are sending a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people in the world. At the same time “To make billions of people around the world aware of the extent of the refugee crisis.”

The 36 nominated athletes will compete under the Olympic flag at the Summer Games (July 26 to August 11) and will be looked after by former Afghan cyclist Masomah Ali Zada ​​as Cheffe de Mission. Ali Zada ​​was part of the team as an athlete in Tokyo in 2021 and is currently a member of the IOC Athletes Commission.

The athletes on the Refugee Olympic Team are selected based on their sporting achievements and personal background. The prerequisite for admission is a refugee status recognized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In Rio in 2016 there was still a ten-strong squad; in Tokyo there were already 29 athletes; at that time six were looked after by the DOSB.

The athletes in the IOC refugee team looked after by the DOSB:

• Alaa Maso (Country of origin: Syria/Sport: Swimming/Training facility: OSP Hannover/in Germany since: 2015)
• Kasra Mehdipournejad (Iran/Taekwondo/TCC Friedrichshafen/2017)
• Yekta Jamali (Iran/Weightlifting/OSP Heidelberg/2022)
• Omid Ahmadisafa (Iran/Boxen/OSP Berlin/2021)
• Mohammad Amin Alsalami (Syria/Athletics/OSP Berlin or SCC Berlin/2015)
• Adnan Khankan (Syria/Judo/OSP Köln/2015)
• Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi (Iran/Judo/Bayreuth/2019)
• Saeid Fazloula (Iran/Canoe Racing/Rheinbrüder Karlsruhe/2015)
• Arab Sibghatullah (Afghanistan/Judo/Mönchengladbach/2023)

A tenth athlete from the Refugee Olympic Team Paris 2024 also lives and trains in Germany, but is looked after directly by the International Canoe Federation (ICF):

• Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani (Iran/Canoe-Slalom/Augsburg/2021).

Olympic flame on a three-master en route to France

2024-05-02 15:03:42
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