Online Reporter
MORE than 100 refugee athletes participated in selection trials in athletics, judo and taekwondo at the Lornah Kiplagat Stadium in Eldoret, Kenya this past week.
The aim of these trials is to be selected for the refugee athlete support programme, which will allow them to train and compete with the aspiration of making the Refugee Olympic Team at Dakar 2026 or Los Angeles 2028.
The trials, organised by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) in collaboration with Athletics Kenya, World Athletics and the Olympic Refugee Foundation (ORF), included competitions in 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, 3 000m and 5 000m races.
They were also supported by the Kenya Taekwondo Federation and the Kenya Judo Federation.
The selected athletes will receive a scholarship from the refugee support programme, which will provide them with a training camp where they can live and prepare with the support of NOCK.
In addition, a group of young athletes will be selected for the Youth Development Programme towards the Refugee Youth Olympic Team in Dakar 2026, allowing them to continue their education while training in their respective communities.
Kenya is one of the largest refugee hosting countries in Africa, with over 800 000 refugees and asylum seekers.
Forty percent of this population resides in the Kakuma refugee camp, a key site in the history of the Refugee Olympic Team.
In fact, half of the team that debuted at Rio 2016 hailed from Kakuma.
On a recent visit, IOC president Thomas Bach called Kakuma “the birthplace of the Refugee Olympic Team.”
In the previous qualifying phase, more than 400 athletes participated in pre-selections, from which the competitors now seeking a spot on the team were chosen.
The final selection for the Dakar 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will be made by the IOC Executive Board at a later date.
Africa is home to more than 47 million of the more than 120 million displaced people in the world.
The Olympic Refugee Foundation has developed multiple programs to support these groups through sport in countries such as Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda, in addition to previous initiatives in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. – Agencies
