At the 2024 Games in Paris, 37 contenders will realise their Olympic dreams as part of the international refugee team – which brings together athletes from the 120 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. RFI met them during their pre-competition training in northern France.
"Being part of this refugee team shows that you can achieve your dream," says Omid Ahmadisafa.
A kickboxer and boxer who once won medals for his native Iran, he now lives in Germany.
"I left my country to hope for a better future and get away from all the problems there," he told RFI at a training centre in Bayeux, near France's northern coast, where he and his new teammates had gathered before heading to Paris for the 2024 Summer Games.
They come from different countries and specialise in different sports. But in these Olympics, they'll compete under the same flag: not of a nation, but the Refugee Olympic Team.
Symbol of resilience
It's the third time a refugee team will take part in the Olympics, and the first time it will have its own flag.
Debuting in Paris, the white flag with a red heart surrounded by a circle of black arrows that Olympic officials describe as waymarkers. It is supposed to symbolise a journey, unity and refuge.
At the opening ceremony on Friday, the team was the second to appear in the floating procession, after Greece's.
"The family has grown since the last editions, it's fantastic," said head of mission Masomah Ali Zada, an Afghan former cyclist who competed for the refugee team herself at Tokyo 2020, when it comprised 29 athletes.
This time they number 37, drawn from 11 countries and specialising in 12 sports, from judo to swimming, badminton to breakdancing.
"They may have different backgrounds, but the thing they all have in common is resilience," said Ali Zada. "They never gave up, despite the difficulties."
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Solidarity in exile
Some of the teammates share more than that. Global events mean that certain countries are more present than others, notably Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.
"I'm glad there are lots of Syrians here," said Yahya al Ghotany, competing in taekwondo. "We share the same story. We've lived through the same problems."
He took up the sport at a refugee camp in Jordan, where he has lived since fleeing the war in Syria.
He was one of the team's two flag bearers at the Olympic opening ceremony on the river Seine, alongside Cameroonian boxer Cindy Ngamba.
Sprinter Dorian Keletela, originally from Congo-Brazzaville, knows people back home will be watching.
"My family and supporters follow what I'm doing and cheer me on from Congo and elsewhere," said the 100-metre specialist, who is now based in France after arriving in Portugal as a teenager.
"It's a massive encouragement and makes me want to give it everything I've got in Paris, even more than at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics."
Keletela set his personal best in those Games: 10.33 seconds. He's hoping to outdo himself this time round.
Fellow runner Farida Abaroge also has a reminder of home.
"I'm staying in a room with another woman from Ethiopia, it's great – we share everything," she said.
Abaroge will be racing in the 1,500 metres, while her roommate Eyeru Gebru is a road cyclist with several medals to her name from African championships.
Both women now live in France. Abaroge politely declined to discuss the reasons she left Ethiopia or the long journey that brought her to Europe: "I'm just here to talk about sport, please."
Athletes above all
It's not surprising that some athletes prefer not to talk about the past.
"It can reopen wounds, and some athletes are struggling to recover," one member of the team support staff told RFI.
"People ask about their lives a lot, often much more than their sporting results. It makes sense in a way, but for many of them it's painful."
Officials organised media training for the team members to prepare them to deal with questions their fellow Olympians won't have to face.
"They're seen primarily as refugees, but above all they're athletes," said Anne-Sophie Thilo, a Swiss former Olympic sailor now in charge of communications for the refugee team.
Organisers brought the 37 athletes and 50 or so staff who'll accompany them to Paris together in Normandy for some final team building before the Games begin.
"Everyone's in a good mood, there's lots of laughing and joking," said Thilo. "It's our first time meeting all together, and it's a unique and very special moment."
In between training sessions, the delegation gathered on the beach at Arromanches-les-Bains to kick a football around and take group photos.
Spirits are high and so are hopes for a medal, something no refugee Olympian has yet won. UK-based boxer Ngamba is tipped to be the first.
While it's gratifying to see the team gain strength, delegation leader Ali Zada says the mission is bittersweet.
"My dream is that one day this team won't exist, that there will no longer be any refugees in the world," she says. "That everyone can live in peace in their own country."
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This story was adapted from original reporting by RFI's Anne Bernas.
