The International Olympic Committee have announced that refugees will be allowed to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This was first introduced at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics where athletes competed under the IOC ‘flag.
The IOC unveiled its first team of refugees in an effort to raise awareness of the issue
President Thomas Bach says the IOC have a pool of more than 50 refugee athletes and it was necessary to keep the world aware of the plight of the tens of millions of refugees around the world.
Bach said;
“There is one unfortunate reason for the creation of this team”
“This is the fact that the reasons we created the first ever team still persist. We have altogether 68.5 million refugees in this world.”
“Through sport we want to make a contribution to keep the world aware of this problem and this challenge and that it does not disappear from the conscience of the world, and send another signal of hope to these refugees.”
There were no details yet on the final size or makeup of the team but Bach said the pool of potential athletes for the team could grow more.
