Athletes’ rights
IOC Refugee Olympic Team: How It Works, From Rio 2016 to Paris 2024
The IOC Refugee Olympic Team is a team of athletes who are refugees, assembled by the International Olympic Committee so that they can compete at the Olympic Games without representing a country. It first competed at Rio 2016 with 10 athletes, returned at Tokyo 2020 with 29 and was described by UNHCR as a 37-strong team at Paris 2024.
How is the team selected?
When the IOC announced the Paris 2024 team at a ceremony at Olympic House in Lausanne, it said the IOC Executive Board had approved the composition. The listed criteria were individual sporting achievements, which come first, refugee status confirmed by UNHCR, balanced representation across sports and genders, and a distribution of the athletes' countries of origin.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, confirms each athlete's refugee status. In its account of the Paris Games, UNHCR described the status as determined by the athletes' host countries and verified by the agency.
UNHCR's account adds that athletes had to excel in their sports to qualify, and that many faced disrupted training and difficulty securing funding, coaching and equipment. It says the IOC announced the final team in early May 2024.
How many athletes have been on the team?
UNHCR describes Rio 2016 as the first Refugee Olympic Team, with 10 athletes, and Tokyo 2020 as the second, with 29. For Paris 2024 the IOC announcement named 36 athletes, while UNHCR's coverage of the opening of the Games refers to a 37-strong team competing across 12 sports.
The IOC announcement also called Paris the team's third Games after Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and described the athletes as ambassadors for more than 100 million displaced people worldwide. UNHCR's account puts the figure it associates with the team at some 120 million forcibly displaced people.
UNHCR notes that, before Rio, refugee athletes were largely excluded from competition at national, regional and international levels, and that more sports federations and associations now include refugee athletes and teams in major events.
| Games | Athletes | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rio 2016 | 10 | UNHCR |
| Tokyo 2020 | 29 | UNHCR |
| Paris 2024 (announced) | 36 | IOC announcement |
| Paris 2024 (at the Games) | 37 | UNHCR |
Source: UNHCR; IOC announcement as republished by the International Luge Federation
Who supports the athletes?
The team has a Cheffe de Mission who is also its spokesperson, according to UNHCR. At the Paris opening ceremony on 26 July 2024 the team's boat travelled down the Seine second in a fleet of 94 carrying national delegations, behind Greece, which traditionally leads the parade.
For Paris 2024, 15 National Olympic Committees supported the athletes: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. UNHCR's account does not give a full list of the athletes' countries of origin or host countries; it mentions Jordan and Kenya only as the settings of individual athletes' stories. The team competed in 12 sports: athletics, badminton, boxing, breaking, canoeing, cycling, judo, sport shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling.
How was the team presented at Paris 2024?
According to UNHCR, the team was led into the opening ceremony by two flag bearers, a boxer based in the United Kingdom and a taekwondo athlete from Jordan's Azraq Refugee Camp. The boat received one of the biggest cheers of the evening in rain along the Seine.
UNHCR also reports that its High Commissioner, Filippo Grandi, received the Olympic Laurel during the ceremony, the third recipient of an award the IOC created to honour achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport. The agency adds that a Tokyo 2020 team member had narrowly missed a medal and that the Paris team's leader hoped to win one.
How is the team funded and prepared?
UNHCR reports that the Olympic Refuge Foundation manages the Refugee Athletes Scholarship Programme, which the IOC funds, and that more than 70 refugee athletes had received scholarships before Paris. Before the Games the team trained together for several days in Bayeux, Normandy, then moved to the Olympic Village in Paris.
UNHCR also says it works with the Foundation and the IOC to bring sport to refugee camps, settlements and urban areas, including building sports grounds and pitches, providing equipment and supporting sport in schools attended by displaced young people.
The Olympic Charter itself includes supporting athletes who are refugees among the objectives of Olympic Solidarity programmes, as one of the points of the Bye-law to Rule 5. Those programmes are administered by the Olympic Solidarity Commission.
