IOC Media
In less than a week, athletes from across the globe will convene in Tokyo for the 2021 Olympics. And for the second time ever, the Games will feature a refugee team, set to include seven runners out of a total of 29 athletes, which is noticeably larger than the 10 refugee athletes who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In 2014, Tegla Loroupe, who competed at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics, and was the first African woman to win the New York City Marathon in 1994, petitioned the International Olympic Committee to create the refugee team in time for the 2016 Olympics. She was successful and went on to become the team’s Chef de Mission. Loroupe was no stranger to the athletic potential refugees could bring, as she’d been promoting peace through sport through the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, which she created in 2003.