IOC announces refugee team for 2024 Summer Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday announced the 36-athlete refugee team for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games that will begin on July 26 in Paris, France.

This will be the third time a refugee team will compete at the Olympic Games since their debut in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016 and the second appearance in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021. The number of athletes grew from 10 in 2016 to 29 in 2021 and now to 36 in 2024. These athletes come from 11 countries and regions and will compete across 12 sports.

"You are an enrichment to our Olympic Community, and to our societies," the IOC President Thomas Bach told the athletes. "With your participation in the Olympic Games, you will demonstrate the human potential of resilience and excellence."

"This will send a message of hope to the more than 100 million displaced people around the world. At the same time, you will make billions of people around the world aware of the magnitude of the refugee crisis," Bach added.

Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, who competed at the past two editions of the Olympic Games, was suspended for four years after testing positive for the banned drug Trimetazidine (TMZ). Including her, there are now three refugee athletes who have violated anti-doping rules in the past few months.

"Of course, we're disappointed," James Macleod, National Olympic Committees relations director of the IOC, said. "Any refugee athlete has the same rights and responsibilities as any athlete in the world and has to follow the rules, whether those be the rules on the field of play, the rules relating to anti-doping, they have to be followed."

"What we have been doing, however, has been working very closely with international federations to make sure that all of the athletes in the program have had a very good education around anti-doping matters, but also are tested on a regular basis, and we'll make sure there are regular tests happening in the run-up to the games as well," Macleod added.