I’m a sucker for the underdog stories and sports at the Olympics. There are some great ones coming out of Paris, but my favourite has to be the Olympic Refugee Team. I wrote about them before, when I saw the movie The Swimmers, which was based on the true story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, Syrian swimmers who became refugees in Germany; Yusra eventually swam for the first Refugee Team at Rio in 2016.
Aside from giving athletes an opportunity to compete when they can’t compete for their home country, it’s also a way to highlight the situation of over 100 million people currently displaced outside their countries. This is reflected in the refugee team pin:
Among the 37 athletes competing this year, two women are especially worthy of notice.
Cameroonian boxer Cindy Ngamba is guaranteed the team’s first-ever medal as she has advanced to the semi-finals. Two bronze medals are awarded in boxing, so even if she loses her next fight on August 8, she is guaranteed a medal. If she wins, she will fight for the gold. Ngamba has lived in the UK since she was 11; as a gay woman, she would be at risk of imprisonment if she returned to Cameroon.
Nigara Shaheen is a judoka originally from Afghanistan, now living in Toronto. Her family fled Afghanistan for Pakistan when she was an infant, and it was there that she first started learning judo. In 2014, she returned to Afghanistan to study at university, but left again in 2018 due to threats and bullying because she was an athlete. Eventually she made her way to Canada where she is now a permanent resident. Although she did not advance in the individual women’s or the mixed team events, I think it’s amazing that she managed to compete at all.
What about you? Do you have any favourite underdogs, whether they be individuals, national teams or sports?
Watching Afghani sisters Yulduz and Fariba Hashimi in the women’s road cycling was one of my favorite moments of 2024: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c720jxej1ewo