Among all the incredibly uplifting stories that emerge from each iteration of the Olympics, there is a constant over the previous two editions - the story of refugees. Of the hundreds of millions of people who migrate, many of them displaced, these handful of athletes are a beacon of hope, that there's light at the end of the tunnel. (More Sports News)
The Refugee Olympic Team was conceptualised at the time of Rio Olympics in 2016, and has since participated at the quadrennial multi-sport event with the aim of calling attention to the plight of refugees worldwide.
This time, the team is 37-strong - their biggest contingent at the Summer Games so far - and comprises athletes from 15 different countries. These 37 sportspersons will compete across 12 sports with eyes not necessarily on the prize, but on belonging at the global stage.
Take Luna Solomon, for instance, who participated at Tokyo 2020 in shooting. Solomon's journey typifies strife and perseverance. She was 20 years old when she made up her mind to flee her homeland Eritrea, and didn’t tell her family about it.
Solomon had heard about others going to Europe, and one night she met people in her neighborhood to embark on a similar route. “It was a really hard journey, we risked dying. It lasted 10 days, we had almost nothing to eat or drink – just to stay alive, we had to drink a tiny amount of water a day. A lot of people died on the way,” the now 30-year-old told the Olympics website.
The worst was yet to come, however, as they arrived in Libya. For the then 20-year-old Solomon, it was the worst day of her life. “The boat was so small and unsecured, there were about 750 of us in it [and] it was really tough. After 12 hours of sailing, the Italian police came to rescue us. I was reassured to be alive,” she said.
She is now a mother and has been living in Switzerland since 2015, but that too hasn't been without its challenges, as the athlete is away from her family and unable to speak the language.
“My dad died when I arrived here, life was really difficult for me and I thought my life was over. I wondered why I'd left my country, why I hadn’t stayed with my family… I regretted it.”
The turning point came after she decided to channel her energy into taking up a sport. Initially, when three-time Olympic shooting champion Niccolo Campriani wanted to meet Solomon and discuss the prospect of taking up shooting, she was aghast.
“I said: ‘Sport shooting? Shooting isn’t for sport, it’s for killing people!’
“For the first three months, I didn’t feel at ease [but] Nicco worked very hard, he was very patient and supported me all the time. In the end, whenever I missed a day of training I missed it, I started to enjoy the sport.”
The enjoyment lead to improvement, and she eventually found herself at the grandest stage of them all - the Olympic arena in Tokyo.
Now, as Paris 2024 beckons, she wants her story to serve as inspiration to other refugees. “I said to myself: ‘As refugees, we too have the right to take part in the Games, we’re human beings like everyone else, we’re not animals.
“I was very touched by the team of refugee athletes. We were all together like a family, we got on well, we laughed, we chatted – it was a beautiful image for all the refugees in the world.”
And just like Solomon, the 37 athletes competing in Paris will have stories of their own to tell, of memories painful and glorious, and of lessons worth learning.
