The Refugee Olympic Team: Sending a Message to the World
By Safiya Umrani
The Olympic Rings in Tokyo, Japan
Taking place under Covid-19 restrictions in empty stadiums during an odd-numbered year, the Tokyo Summer Olympics was no doubt one of the most unique games ever held. These unusual circumstances prompted athletes to speak out about many of the social issues that gained awareness over quarantine, from mental health to gender equality to racial justice. Although this year marked the third Olympic games that the Refugee Olympic Team has competed in, the team received much more attention this year than they have in the past. The Refugee Olympic Team, created by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and the UN General Assembly in October 2015, was intended to give athletes in the global refugee crisis a chance to compete on the world stage, despite their disputed citizenship.
In 2015, there were over 16.1 million refugees worldwide, the majority due to conflicts or wars in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. The International Olympic Committee established a Refugee Emergency Fund that same year, donating approximately $1.9 million to international aid organizations to help integrate refugees into sports. The cost of sports equipment, especially for winter events, as well as sending an athlete to the Olympics is no small feat. At the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics the following year, 10 athletes, originally from Syria, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia competed together for the first time in Olympic history. Their training and development was funded by the Olympic Solidarity Commission, which provided support for national Olympic committees.
Although the Refugee Olympic Team is portrayed as a “message of hope and solidarity” to forcibly displaced people around the world, some team members have complained that the IOC does not do enough to support them outside of training. In a Time magazine article from July 2021, South Sudanese runner Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu claimed that he and other refugee athletes had been denied their rightfully won prize money and instead received only $100-$200 in monthly disbursements. Supposedly, the IOC promised disbursements of at least $1,500 a month. However, the money itself was not so much the problem as was the implication that refugees were meant to be grateful for whatever aid they received without complaint. After Lobalu and five other team members defected from the team, refusing to return to their training centers, they were banned from trying out for the following Games. The UN and IOC stated that the protected status of being caught between countries meant that they were no longer considered refugees, but many believed it to be punishment for being non-cooperative. To these refugees, it seemed like the IOC only cared about their well-being as Olympic athletes to be used as props.
Despite the concerns of the IOC’s involvement in the global refugee crisis, the number of athletes has increased substantially since the team’s inception, nearly tripling from 10 members in 2016 to 29 in 2021. But notably this year, there does not seem to be any refugee Olympic team competing in the Beijing Winter Olympics. There was a similar absence in 2018 at the winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea with absolutely no explanation as to why, generating speculation that the refugee team would not be returning to the Olympic games. The Olympic team roster for 2022 also makes no note of them at all. Along with the previous defections and the current human rights controversy regarding China’s mistreatment of Uyghur Muslims, this generates further concern regarding the IOC’s commitment to human rights.
