Olympic Committee Names 29 Refugee Athletes To Participate In Tokyo Games - Statement

Olympic Committee Names 29 Refugee Athletes to Participate in Tokyo Games - Statement

Organizers have announced the names of the 29 athletes who will participate in the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in Japan as part of the Refugee Team, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2021) Organizers have announced the Names of the 29 athletes who will participate in the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in Japan as part of the Refugee Team, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.

"The IOC have revealed the names of the athletes who will represent the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021," the committee said in a news release. "The final 29 athletes ... come from 11 countries, and were selected by the IOC's Executive board."

During the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games on July 23, the team will enter the brand new Japan National Stadium with the Olympic flag in second position, immediately after Greece, the IOC said.

"The refugee athletes are an enrichment for all of us in the entire Olympic community. The reasons we created this team still exist. We have more forcibly displaced people in the world right now," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a virtual ceremony podcast from Lausanne in Switzerland.

The team will stay in the Olympic village, like all the other 206 National Olympic Committees taking part, and continue to receive IOC support after the Olympic Games, the release said. The participating athletes are from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Iran, Cameroon, Eritrea, Congo and Venezuela.