Highly qualified athletes who are refugees will be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Monday.
IOC president Thomas Bach made the announcement to the UN General Assembly, which adopted a resolution urging all countries to stop fighting and observe a truce during the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Bach appealed to all 193 UN member states to help the IOC identify talented refugee athletes.
Photo: AFP
“This will be a symbol of hope for all the refugees in our world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis,” he said.
Until now, Bach said, qualified refugee athletes were not able to participate because they could not represent their home country and its national Olympic committee.
However, he said the IOC has decided to welcome refugee athletes to next year’s Olympics, where they will live in the Olympic Village alongside the other 11,000 athletes from 206 national Olympic committees.
“Having no national team to belong to, having no flag to march behind, having no national anthem to be played, these refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem,” he said.
Currently, there are about 20 million refugees in the world — and the number is growing.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said earlier this month that more than 500,000 refugees and economic migrants have entered Europe this year, and thousands more are following in their footsteps.
Bach said the IOC has created a US$2 million fund “to bring hope through sport to refugees.”
“At the same time, we are assisting high-level refugee athletes to continue their sports careers,” he said. “We help them to make their dream of sporting excellence come true even when they have to flee from violence and hunger.”
However, Bach said the IOC needs help in identifying more high-level refugee athletes.
He said that in Olympic sports, “all people are equal, regardless of their race, gender, social status, cultural background, faith or belief.”
He said the Olympic Games are the culmination of this vision and the principle of nondiscrimination.
Bach alluded to world soccer’s corruption-hit governing body, FIFA, telling the General Assembly that the IOC “has ensured that we are in compliance with the highest standards of good governance and transparency.”
“In this respect, we are asking other major sports organizations to undertake the necessary and swift reforms in order to restore their reputation,” the IOC president said.
The Olympic Truce resolution was introduced by Carlos Nuzman, president of the Rio organizing committee, on behalf of the Olympic movement and Brazil. It was approved by consensus, with about 180 countries as co-sponsors.
It urges all UN member states to observe the truce starting seven days before the Olympics take place, from Aug. 5 to Aug. 21 next year, and lasting until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games, which will be held from Sept. 7 to Sept. 18 next year.
The resolution recalls an ancient Greek tradition where the legendary oracle of Delphi called for a cessation of hostilities to encourage a peaceful environment and ensure safe passage and participation of athletes in the ancient Olympics.
The General Assembly revived the tradition in 1993 and has adopted resolutions before the summer and winter Olympic Games since then, but countries have continued fighting wars whether the Olympics are on or not.
The NBA said was re-evaluating its training program in China following allegations of abuse of young players by local staff and harassment of foreign staffers at a facility in Xinjiang. The comments come after a report by ESPN that quoted unnamed American coaches as saying that Chinese coaches hit young players. One American coach who worked at a camp in Xinjiang complained of harassment by local police, the sports network said. “The allegations in the ESPN article are disturbing,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said in an e-mail statement on Thursday. “We ended our involvement with the basketball academy in Xinjiang in June
Taiwan Steel on Sunday grabbed three points with a narrow 1-0 win against Hang Yuan FC, to move into the No. 2 spot on the Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) log, while Taipower FC beat NTUS 2-0 to maintain first place. Taking advantage early in the match of opposition defenders who had not yet settled down, Taiwan Steel’s attacking trio of Wu Chun-ching, Marc Fenelus from the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Benchy Astama from Haiti pushed forward with good passes. After only one minute of play, Fenelus dribbled from the right flank, feeding a short pass inside the penalty area to
LEAVING IT LATE: Rakuten added late runs last night to add to wins on Wednesday against the Brothers and the Lions on Friday that went down to the last batter The Rakuten Monkeys rallied to post three late runs for another close win, prevailing 5-3 over the Uni-President Lions yesterday as Taiwan’s second-half CPBL season got started with lower scoring output, but exciting finishes. It was Rakuten’s third win in a row. In two games this week, they seized victory in dramatic fashion with their last at-bat and have drawn level with the CTBC Brothers on top of the table after yesterday’s results, 0.5 games in front of the Fubon Guardians and 1.5 games ahead of the Lions. It was tied at 1-1 early, with Rakuten hosting the Lions at the Taoyuan Intenational
STAYING COOL: Hamilton said that his ‘heart nearly stopped’ when he noticed the puncture, but he kept going to beat Alain Prost’s total of six home wins in France Lewis Hamilton said he feared he might not make it home when a last lap puncture almost derailed his charge to a record seventh British Grand Prix victory on Sunday. “I didn’t think I would make it round the last two corners,” the world champion said. The front left tire of his Mercedes had delaminated and deflated on his final lap, leaving the six-time world champion to nurse his vehicle to the finish as second-placed Max Verstappen hunted him down. “I just can’t believe it,” Hamilton said. “It was heart-stopping. I backed off and stayed chilled and was so glad it happened on
RSS