The Refugee Olympic Team was set to be announced during the IOC Executive Board meeting yesterday (8). It was to be bigger than the one chosen for Rio 2016, when it made its debut[/caption]
The announcement of an expanded Refugee Olympic Team for Tokyo 2020 was to be the highlight of the opening day of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting yesterday (8).
It was expected that up to 35 athletes could be selected, representing a significant increase on the 10 who competed in three sports at Rio 2016 when the squad made its debut.
Thanks to scholarships provided by the IOC, 55 promising refugee athletes from 13 countries have been given the opportunity to qualify for Tokyo 2020, reported the Inside the Games on Monday (7).
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Portugal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have all hosted athletes.
They compete in 12 sports - athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, judo, karate, taekwondo, shooting sport, swimming, weightlifting, and wrestling.
IOC officials were hoping that the announcement of the team - whose official acronym at Tokyo 2020 will EOR, based on the French name Equipe Olympique des Réfugiés, rather than the unfortunate “ROT” that was used at Rio 2016 - will provide some rare positive news in this Olympic build-up.
The IOC and Tokyo 2020 are battling worldwide criticism that they are continuing to press ahead with preparations for the re-arranged Games, due to open on 23 July and conclude on 8 August, in the face of consistent public opposition in Japan.
There remain fears that hosting an event with more than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries could help accelerate the spread of Covid-19 and put the brakes on Japan emerging from the pandemic.