On Monday, the International Olympic Committee 聽that top refugee athletes with no home country to represent can compete at the 2016 Rio Games under the Olympic flag. The statement drew attention to refugee crises across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. But it also left us with one big question: How many potential Olympian refugees are there?聽
鈥淚t would be premature to speculate on the number of athletes who will take part in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,鈥 the IOC wrote 国产吃瓜黑料 in an email. 鈥淲ith the help of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Olympic Committee has already identified a number of athletes who are living in refugee camps and is helping them through its .鈥
Simply put, the 聽offers NOCs financial and administrative assistance to help develop their individual Olympic programs and get their athletes to the Games. About seven weeks ago, the IOC 聽it had created a $2 million fund immediately available to NOCs for refugee programs. One million came from the IOC, the other million from Olympic Solidarity.听
鈥淲e are hopeful that this initiative will bring hope to the refugee athletes who long to go back to training and compete at the Olympic Games,鈥澛爐he IOC wrote to聽国产吃瓜黑料.
聽have already received a combined total of $500,000 for refugee-centered projects, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Slovenia. The programs are designed to improve refugees鈥 quality of life and integrate them into their new communities through sport. The Danish NOC, for example, started a project called 鈥,鈥 in which local sports clubs work with refugee housing centers to integrate refugees into local sports activities. UNHCR 聽more than 17,000 refugees are currently in Denmark.听
鈥淲e are hopeful, however, that this initiative will bring hope to the refugee athletes who long to go back to training and compete at the Olympic Games,鈥 the IOC wrote to 国产吃瓜黑料.听
One of these athletes has already competed at the Olympics under the Olympic flag. South Sudanese marathoner聽聽had been living as a refugee in the U.S. for 10 years when he ran in the London Olympics as one of four stateless, independent participants. (The three others, from the former Netherlands Antilles, competed independently when the IOC after the country was 聽in 2010.)
Guor, it鈥檚 important to note, ran track and field in high school in New Hampshire, and at Iowa State University where he became an . So in a way, the IOC鈥檚 recent announcements are really efforts to give the 聽opportunities similar to Guor鈥檚. That is, help integrating into their new communities, and receive the same opportunities to be identified and developed as a potential Olympian by their new countries鈥 NOCs.
鈥淲e also encourage refugee athletes who are now in Europe to contact the NOCs of the country that has welcomed them,鈥 the IOC wrote Outside. The IOC also hopes that Monday鈥檚 announcement 鈥渨ill be a symbol of hope for all refugees around the world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis.”