Olympia
The Iranian canoeist Saman Soltani, who lives and trains in Austria, will compete in the flat-water sprint in the “Refugee Team” of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Summer Olympics in Paris. The team includes 36 athletes and is therefore larger than ever.
02.05.2024 16.07
Online since today, 4:07 p.m
The IOC announced the names of the squad on Thursday; the athletes come from eleven countries. The team is made up of 23 men and 13 women and they compete in a total of twelve sports.
An athlete living in Austria was also on the refugee team at the 2021 Tokyo Games, namely the Iraqi wrestler Aker Al Obaidi. His name is now Aker Schmid, he has become an Austrian and as such tried to qualify for the Paris Games. A week ago, the 24-year-old had to withdraw from the last qualifying opportunity scheduled for next week in Istanbul due to injury.
“Message of Hope”
“This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world. At the same time, you will make billions of people around the world aware of the extent of the refugee crisis,” said IOC President Thomas Bach when nominating the team. After Rio 2016 and Tokyo three years ago, this is the third time an IOC refugee team has taken part in the Summer Games.
For the first time, the selection in Paris will not start under the Olympic flag, but with its own emblem that has a heart in the middle. According to the IOC, all 36 Olympic participants – a record number for a “refugee team” – have refugee status in their host country, which has also been confirmed by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
2022 to Austria
Soltani fled from Tehran to Austria in 2022. She started out as a synchronized swimmer and was the Iranian national champion. The athlete later switched to canoeing because there were more competition opportunities. The highlight and her first international success was winning the silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games. The 27-year-old’s escape took her via Spain to Austria.
Runner Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who comes from South Sudan, will not be there in Paris; the 29-year-old recently tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine in a doping test. It was the third case among the candidates for the IOC refugee team. In addition to canoeing, refugee team members compete in judo, swimming, cycling, boxing, taekwondo, badminton, shooting, wrestling, breaking, weightlifting and athletics.
