Paris, France, July 23, 2024: The two athletes who will be carrying the Olympic flag on behalf of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Friday are boxer Cindy Ngamba and taekwondo player Yahya Al-Ghotany. This was announced on Tuesday during the 142nd IOC Session in Paris.
Cameroon-born Ngamba, who moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11, is one of two refugee athlete scholarship-holders who made history and qualified for the Olympic Games. She is a three-time English national champion.
The first of a family of seven children, Al-Ghotany had no choice but to leave Syria with his family and find a safer place when war broke out.
Once he arrived in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, he started to practise taekwondo. He now trains twice a day as part of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation’s Azraq Academy. After only five years of practising his sport, he reached black belt 2nd dan level.
Al-Ghotany said: “It means a lot to me to carry this special flag for this unique team. At the opening ceremony, I will be thinking about everyone that has helped me on my journey – my friends, my family – but also the more than 100 million people around the world, who, just like me, have had to flee their homes. I represent all of them.”
The Refugee Olympic Team is made up of 37 athletes from different backgrounds, living in 15 countries and competing in 12 different sports and will be competing at the Olympic Games for a third time.
(Olympics.com)