Refugee Runners

Garkuouth Puok Diep (l.), a South Sudanese marathoner who hopes to qualify
for the refugee Olympic team, runs in Eldoret,Kenya, with his training partner,
Kenyan Michael Cheboi.
Credit: Ryan Lenora Brown

"Few events cultivate as deep and enthusiastic a sense of nationalism as the Olympic Games, a weeks-long parade of national colors and elite sporting prowess that makes it difficult to not feel a reverent awe for those world-class athletes with whom you share a common geography. But this August, when the 205 country delegations march into Rio de Janeiro’s Maracan Stadium for the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Games, the procession will also be joined by a very different kind of Olympic team. For the first time in history, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is fielding a small team of refugees – between five and 10 athletes who will represent not a country, but all those without one."

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