Making it to the Olympic Games in Paris is an incredible feat — made much more difficult for some athletes who have been forced from their home countries, becoming refugees. These athletes will get to participate in the 2024 Games as part of the refugee Olympic team, created by the IOC.

Muna Dahouk, a Syrian refugee who now lives in the Netherlands, says she wants to use her platform as a refugee athlete to break down stereotypes and challenge misconceptions about refugees.

Dahouk fled Syria in 2019, and upon arrival in the Netherlands, she says that competing in judo was the last thing on her mind. But eventually she returned to it and qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games. She says that her fellow refugee athletes “understand each other and are like one” because they have all shared the same pain of fleeing their countries. Now they all want to be an example of hope to other refugees worldwide. 

“I will represent the refugees around the world – to show people what the refugees can do. We are not weak people. We can be athletes, we can be students, we can be anything we want,” Dahouk told CBS News. 

What does IOC stand for?

IOC, or International Olympic Committee, is the nonprofit international organization behind the Games. 

What is the IOC refugee Olympic team?

The refugee Olympic team for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is made up of 37 athletes from 11 different countries participating across 12 sports. The IOC created the team to ensure that people displaced from their home countries can have access and funding to participate in sports at the highest level. The team will compete under the acronym EOR, based on the French name Équipe Olympique des Réfugiés.

Who is on the IOC refugee team for the 2024 Summer Olympics?

The team represents the more than 100 million displaced people around the world. The requirements for joining the team were each athlete’s sporting performance and their refugee status as verified by the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. The UNHRC defines a refugee as someone “who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

A majority of the athletes were selected from the Refugee Athletes Scholarship Program, which is funded by the Olympic Solidarity Initiative and managed by the Olympic Refugee Foundation. The 37 selected athletes are hosted by the National Olympic Committees of Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. They will compete in athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoeing, cycling, judo, sport shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling. This is up from the 29 refugee athletes who competed in Tokyo. Here are the competitors, as listed on the Olympics website: 

• Adnan Khankan, judo
• Alaa Maso, swimming
• Amir Ansari, cycling
• Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani, canoe slalom
• Arab Sibghatullah, judo
• Cindy Ngamba, boxing
• Dina Pouryones Langeroudi, taekwondo
• Dorian Keletela, athletics (track and field)
• Dorsa Yavarivafa, badminton
• Eyeru Gebru, cycling 
• Farida Abaroge, athletics 
• Farzad Mansouri, taekwondo
• Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez, canoe sprint
• Francisco Edilio Centeno Nieves, shooting
• Hadi Tiranvalipour, taekwondo
• Iman Mahdavi, wrestling
• Jamal Abdelmaji, athletics
• Jamal Valizadeh, Greco-Roman wrestling
• Kasra Mehdipournejad, taekwondo
• Luna Solomon, shooting
• Mahboubeh Barbari Yharfi, judo
• Manizha Talash, breaking 
• Matin Balsini, swimming
• Mohammad Amin Alsalami, athletics 
• Mohammad Rashnonezhad, judo
• Muna Dahouk, judo
• Musa Suliman, athletics 
• Nigara Shaheen, judo 
• Omid Ahmadisafa, boxing 
• Perina Lokure Nakang, athletics
• Ramiro Mora, weightlifting
• Saeid Fazloula, canoe sprint
• Saman Soltani, canoe sprint
• Tachlowini Gabriyesos, athletics
• Yahya Al Ghotany, taekwondo
• Yekta Jamali Galeh, weightlifting 

When did the IOC create the refugee team?

As a result of the global refugee crisis in 2015, the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the refugee Olympic team during the United Nations General Assembly meeting. The 2016 Rio Olympics Games were the first to feature a refugee team. Ten athletes from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo marched into the Opening Ceremony under the Olympic Flag immediately before the host nation of Brazil. 

This year for the first time the refugee Olympic team will compete under their own emblem made up of a heart surrounded by various colored arrows, meant to represent a sense of belonging for the 100 million people who all share the story of displacement. 

How are the athletes being supported? 

The refugee Olympic team is funded by the Olympic Solidarity Initiative, which financially supports National Olympic Committees throughout the world. The National Olympic Committees identify refugee athletes living in their countries and fund them throughout their training, preparation, and participation in competitions. Each of these programs are managed by the Olympic Refugee Foundation. 

Chef de Mission for the Refugee Olympic Team Masomah Ali Zada, who competed for the refugee team in Tokyo, welcomed the athletes during the team announcement saying, “With all the challenges that you have faced, you now have a chance to inspire a new generation, represent something bigger than yourselves and show the world what refugees are capable of.”

Creating access to sports for refugees 

In addition to supporting top athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games, the Olympic Refugee Foundation organizes programs around the world to provide access to safe sports to displaced communities. Since it began in 2017, it has provided access to sports to almost 400,000 people and training for 1,600 coaches. 

The Bangladesh-based program focuses on the Kurigram district, a region in the north highly susceptible to events such as flooding, and the slums in the capital Dhaka, where a large number of residents have been displaced by climate-induced disasters. The program works in collaboration with local non-profits to find playgrounds and coaches to provide access to sports.