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The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games opened this past Wednesday, including a Refugee Paralympic Team (RPT) that is the largest-ever. Representing the more than 120 million displaced people worldwide, the team is hosted in six countries and will compete across six sports.
The eight athletes and two guide runners are also part of the estimated 18 million people with disabilities who have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to war, conflict, violence and human rights violations. They often face higher risks of violence, discrimination, exploitation and abuse, as well as barriers in accessing critical support, assistance, education and sporting and livelihood opportunities.
The RPT debuted at the Rio 2016 Paralympics with only two athletes – growing to a team of six at Tokyo 2020 and now eight at Paris 2024. They are competing in Para athletics, Para powerlifting, Para table tennis, Para taekwondo, Para triathlon and wheelchair fencing. T11 Para athletics sprinter Guillaume Junior Atangana was the team’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony.
“The RPT is an inspiration to us all. These incredible athletes have overcome unimaginable adversity to achieve the highest pinnacle of sporting success,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. “RPT’s presence on the global stage sends a message of hope to millions of refugees across the world and indeed to all of us. This remarkable team reminds us of how important it is for people with disabilities to have a chance to fully participate in society on an equal basis.”
Afghan Para taekwondo star Zakia Khudadadi advocates for women’s and refugee rights. Now living in France, she fled her country after the Taliban seized power. After a desperate video appeal, she was smuggled out of Kabul, and within a few days, was competing in Tokyo 2020 — becoming the first Afghan woman to appear at the Games since 2004.
“This is a chance to inspire… To show women and girls that they are more than they’re made [to] feel by the Taliban. To show that the women of Afghanistan are strong and can achieve great things,” she said. On Thursday, Khudadadi made history when she won the first-ever Paralympic medal for the refugee team — a bronze in the women’s K44 -47kg category.
Accommodation rental company, Airbnb is supporting the RPT with training and other expenses for the 2024 Games. “[In 2020], Airbnb helped me a lot to have food on my plate, to pay my rent, to pay my expenses. If Airbnb hadn’t been by my side at that time, I wouldn’t have been able to practice… I would have to stop doing sports,” said Ibrahim Al-Hussein, a Para triathlete who is a refugee from Syria.
This builds on Airbnb’s longstanding commitment to support refugees and displaced people. Since its founding in 2020, non-profit Airbnb.org has worked with organizations around the world to provide over 1.4 million nights of free, temporary housing to more than 210,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
The Paralympic Games celebrate human achievement and diversity. The RPT is a perfect example of this, and it intends to inspire viewers worldwide to embrace differences and raise awareness of the plight of refugees and displaced people worldwide. As Khudadadi told The Guardian: “We need to make people understand that refugees have a right to asylum, that they had to flee their countries because of the situation they were in. We need to make people understand the reality of what refugees are going through.”
Photos: International Paralympic Committee
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