The team selected by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday was drawn from 55 athletes who fled their home countries and got scholarships to train for the games in a new home country.
Kimia Alizadeh is among them five years after she became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal. She took bronze in taekwondo at the age of 18. Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini was also named in the refugee contingent.
The 29 athletes – a rise from 10 in the inaugural refugee team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics – are also originally from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Congo, Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iraq, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela.
This story is from the June 09, 2021 edition of Gulf Today.
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This story is from the June 09, 2021 edition of Gulf Today.
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