Athletes of the Refugee Olympic started their training camp at Aspire Zone yesterday.
Doha: Athletes of the Refugee Olympic Team yesterday began training at Doha's Aspire Zone ahead of their participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The team arrived in Doha on Sunday.
The training camp comes in light of Qatar’s support to refugees around the world and as an initiative that reflects the strong partnership between the QOC, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees through the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
The QOC is a supportive and founding partner of the Olympic Refuge Foundation which aims to continue the efforts adopted by the IOC over the past years to support refugees all over the world.
The Refugee Olympic Team to participate in Tokyo Olympics is composed of 29 athletes from 11 countries selected by the IOC Executive Board from the 55 Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders.
The 29 members of the Refugee Olympic Team will be competing across 12 sports at Tokyo Olympics including; Athletics, Swimming, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Karate, Shooting, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
These athletes will act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis. The Refugee Olympic Team’s Chef de Mission is Tegla Loroupe. She is being assisted by 20 coaches and officials.
Created in 2015, the Refugee Olympic Team competed for the first time at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with 10 athletes from four countries including two swimmers, one Judoka, two long-distance runners and five middle-distance runners.
