Refugee runners rev up for Olympics
The Olympic refugee team is revving up for Tokyo
Locator: Ngong, Kenya
The 29-strong team will compete across 12 sports at the Tokyo Games
and is almost three times as big
as the inaugural team at the Rio 2016 Games
(SOUNDBITE)(English) IOC REFUGEE TEAM CHIEF DE MISSION, TEGLA LOROUPE, SAYING:
"It is a team work to see that kids with a displaced background have the right to compete like any other. So today our athletes are athletes, not like when they went to Rio. Now they are competing for time."
The team will compete under the Olympic flag
and includes athletes from Syria, South Sudan Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Iran
(SOUNDBITE)(English) IOC REFUGEE TEAM MEMBER, ANJELINA NADAI LOHALITH, SAYING: "I used to tell myself that one day one time I will travel with the aeroplane in various places, but I never knew what would make me to travel. I never, I just knew that one day one time I am going to travel. Now it happened in 2016 that I travelled to Brazil and competed internationally in the Olympics, then I realized that I have a talent that can take me far. For me, it was really really, I was really really happy for it."
