LAUSANNE: The refugee team for the Tokyo Olympics has 29 athletes competing in 12 sports.
The team selected by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday was drawn from 55 athletes who fled their home countries and got scholarships to train for the games in a new home country.
The 29 — a rise from 10 in the inaugural refugee team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics — are originally from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Congo, Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela.
They will compete in swimming, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, judo, karate, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling.
“You are an integral part of our Olympic community, and we welcome you with open arms.” IOC president Thomas Bach told the athletes when announcing their selection, adding they would “send a powerful message of solidarity, resilience and hope to the world.”
The team will be managed in Tokyo by officials from the IOC and the United Nations’ Geneva-based refugee agency, the UNHCR.
“Surviving war, persecution and the anxiety of exile already makes them extraordinary people,” UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement, “but the fact that they now also excel as athletes on the world stage fills me with immense pride.”
The refugee athletes will compete against 206 national teams with identifier EOR, for the French acronym of the team name. The Tokyo Olympics are from July 23-Aug. 8.
Refugee team of 29 athletes picked for Tokyo Olympics
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Refugee team of 29 athletes picked for Tokyo Olympics
- International Olympic Committee selected 29 out of 55 athletes who fled their home countries and got scholarships to train for the games
- ‘You are an integral part of our Olympic community, and we welcome you with open arms’, IOC president told the athletes
Kane helps Bayern past Leipzig into German Cup semis
- Bayern join defending champions Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg in the last four of this season’s competition
MUNICH, Germany: Harry Kane scored a penalty and Luis Diaz struck again as Bayern Munich beat RB Leipzig 2-0 on Wednesday to reach the German Cup semifinals for the first time since 2020.
Already on the wrong side of two Bayern thumpings this season, Leipzig were much improved but the hosts grabbed hold of the match with two goals in four second-half minutes.
Bayern join defending champions Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg in the last four of this season’s competition.
Kane’s penalty was his 39th goal in all competitions for Bayern this season, while Diaz’s goal was his fifth in his past three matches.
Winners of this competition a record 20 times, 14 more than any other club, Bayern had failed to make it past the quarter-finals since 2020, when they beat Leverkusen in the final.
Leipzig had won two of the past four German Cups but Bayern had form over the visitors this season, winning their two Bundesliga clashes by a combined score of 11-1.
Leipzig pressured the hosts early and were celebrating a goal after just four minutes, but an acrobatic Christoph Baumgartner strike was disallowed for a narrow offside.
Bayern immediately made the most of the let-off, Kane forcing a last-ditch clearance from Ridle Baku with the Leipzig goalkeeper laying on the turf.
The home side gradually wrestled control of the match and were unlucky not to take the lead with 57 minutes gone when Leipzig ‘keeper Maarten Vandevoordt denied Serge Gnabry with a stunning save.
Bayern were in front just five minutes later, Kane converting from the spot after Vandevoordt felled an advancing Josip Stanisic in the box.
Kane’s spot-kick, his fifth goal versus Leipzig this season, was his 12th penalty in all competitions this campaign.
Bayern’s goals this season have come in bursts and the Bavarians scored again just four minutes later, when Michael Olize found Diaz on the counter to help book a spot in the final four.
The German Cup final will be held at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on May 23.
