Refugees Eligible to Compete in Olympics — IOC

The resolution, entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”, was formally submitted to the General Assembly on behalf of the Olympic Movement and Brazil by the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro 2016, led by its President, Carlos Nuzman.

Representatives from the five cities bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be attending the general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Washington this week to leverage the first official opportunity for bid committees to tell their stories to the Olympic world. But amid a growing crisis, with a few 20 million refugees worldwide, the global Olympic Committee chose to welcome refugee athletes.

Refugee athletes with no home country to represent will compete in Rio under the Olympic flag.

However, he said the IOC has made a decision to welcome refugee athletes to the 2016 Olympics, where they will live in the Olympic Village alongside the other 11,000 athletes from 206 national Olympic committees. “We help them to make their dream of sporting excellence come true, even when they have to flee from violence and hunger”.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Monday urging all countries and regions to observe the Olympic truce – ceasing all conflicts between countries and regions participating in the Games from seven days before the Olympics start until seven days after they finish.

During the 2012 London Olympics, one athlete from South Sudan had to compete as an independent as the National Olympic Committee for South Sudan was not yet established.

Bach stressed that all people are equal in Olympic sports and that the games aimed to promote nondiscrimination and peace. More than 500,000 refugees have arrived in Greece via the Mediterranean this year alone, according to United Nation’s refugee agency.