Engy jarrouj

The International Olympic Committee: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday launched the “1 in 100 Million” campaign which aims to shine a spotlight on the 36 inspirational athletes who have faced incredible challenges to reach their start line, and called on everyone to get behind the team when they represent the over 100 million displaced people on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

The campaign began with a graphic-novel-style short film that introduced the formidable sporting talents and unique personal stories of Refugee Olympic team athletes, including Cindy Ngamba (boxing), Dorsa Yavarivafa (badminton) and Ramiro Mora (weightlifting), and Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holder Kavan Majidi (judo), whilst also drawing attention to the shocking scale of the global refugee crisis.

When the team made its debut at Rio 2016, there were close to 60 million displaced people globally. On the eve of Paris 2024, that number has now soared to well over 100 million and is still rising – that’s around 1 in 70 people living on our planet (UNHCR, 2023). Putting all the forcibly displaced people in one place would create the 14th most populous country in the world – and that population is increasing all the time.