Very trendy. The Association of European Olympic Committees (EOC) has announced the participation of a team of refugees in the 2023 European Games, scheduled for June 21 to July 2 in Poland. It will be the first in history to participate in a continental multi-sport event. For this first, the EOC did not want to see things too big: its refugee team will include five athletes, engaged in two combat sports, taekwondo and boxing. The three taekwondo athletes, Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin (pictured above), Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi and Kasra Mehdipournejad, are originally from Iran, but now live in the Netherlands and Germany. The two boxers, Farid Walizadeh and Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba, are originally from Afghanistan and Cameroon. They live in Portugal and Great Britain respectively. The EOC’s initiative was carried out in collaboration with the Olympic Refugee Foundation (ORF), which is in charge of the Olympic Solidarity-funded support program for refugee athletes. The five athletes involved in the 2023 European Games have been awarded a scholarship by the ORF. They all aim to be part of the IOC’s Olympic refugee team at the Paris 2024 Games.
