Forbes Senior Editor Maggie McGrath and Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner in the Office of the United Nations for Refugees, to the Paris Olympics 2024, speak on the Refugee Olympic team and how the program grew to 37 athletes.
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0:00 Introduction
1:36 Who Helped Put This Olympic Team Together?
3:29 How Kelly Clements Grew This Refugee Olympic Team To 37 Athletes
9:39 Who Is Notable And Competing Soon
12:43 What Kelly Hopes To Achieve With Future Refugee Olympic Teams
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0:00 Introduction
1:36 Who Helped Put This Olympic Team Together?
3:29 How Kelly Clements Grew This Refugee Olympic Team To 37 Athletes
9:39 Who Is Notable And Competing Soon
12:43 What Kelly Hopes To Achieve With Future Refugee Olympic Teams
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
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More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi everyone, I'm Maggie McGrath, Senior Editor at Forbes. The 2024 Summer Olympics are continuing
00:10to play out and among this year's competitors are 37 athletes who represent the Olympic
00:16Refugee Team. Here to tell us more about these athletes is Kelly Clements. She is the Deputy
00:23High Commissioner for the UN Refugee Agency. Kelly, thank you so much for joining us. You're
00:27speaking to us from Geneva and we so appreciate your time. Thank you, glad to be here. So let's
00:33dive right in. I mentioned 37 athletes are on this team. Who are they? What do we need to know
00:39about the Refugee Olympic Team? Well, you mentioned the number and that's notable. You know, I was in
00:47Rio eight years ago when we had the first Refugee Olympic Team under the auspices of
00:52the International Olympic Committee and there was just over a dozen at that point. So we're talking
00:57about three times as many athletes. They represent 15 national committees who have put them forward
01:05as potential athletes that could compete for the Olympics and they're competing in 12 different
01:12sports and the sports range from everything from taekwondo to canoeing to boxing and they represent,
01:20they are basically competing under the moniker of the Refugee Olympic Team and the Olympic flag
01:27as opposed to their own because these are individuals who have sought asylum, have refugee
01:33status in countries around the world. So you mentioned the 15 agencies that put them forward
01:40for this team. So would that be the country in which they are seeking refuge? That country puts
01:45them on your radar and that's what helps get them on this team? They nominate them to the IOC
01:53and the IOC has a process to look at their qualifications from an athletic perspective
01:59and if they meet that criteria then the IOC coordinates with UNHCR who communicates with
02:06the government about their refugee status to basically validate that they are indeed refugees
02:12and this team, they're extraordinary athletes obviously at the elite of their
02:20respective games, but they're also individuals that are coming from all over the world and it's
02:24a very diverse group of athletes. These national committees are, you know, the countries like Spain,
02:31U.S., Canada, U.K. that have put these athletes forward but because of what's happening in the
02:38world today, Maggie, I mean we're looking at a situation where you can't see one part of the
02:43globe and not see a world in crisis or a world that's burning and so these are refugees that
02:49many have harrowing stories of loss and, you know, families that they may be separated from
02:56or who have perished but these are also athletes that have been able now to have been given an
03:01opportunity for a fresh start and these countries and with the support obviously of IOC and the
03:08Olympic Refuge Foundation have been able to train to be provided scholarship and to be able to then
03:15compete at a place that I think all of us only dream about. So it's really a
03:22lot of excitement. You see incredible athletes but behind these athletes are stories that are
03:28more than compelling. We'll get into some of those stories in a second but I just I want to reflect
03:33on the numbers because this team is relatively new. You mentioned the Rio Olympics was the first time
03:38we saw them just less than 10 years ago. So is the growing number of athletes on the
03:46Refugee Olympic Team a sign of better outreach to these athletes or is it a sign of the
03:53worsening refugee crisis around the world? And I should note there are roughly 120
03:59million people around the globe who are displaced or who have sought refuge from where they had been
04:05living and are currently in crisis. So Kelly, is it that you guys and the asylum countries are
04:12getting better at recognizing, okay, these are athletes who athletically have achieved Olympic
04:17status or is it a sign of a worsening crisis? I think, Maggie, I think it's a little bit of both
04:25quite frankly. I mean, when we engaged in discussions with the International
04:31Olympic Committee back in preparation for the 2016 Games and this idea came about, it was also
04:38at about the time that we were recognizing that sport is not just fun or a test of one's personal
04:46abilities but sport can protect and sport can be a way, particularly for youth, and you mentioned
04:53that 120 million figure, 60 percent of the programs that through sport that we implement
05:00with partners including the ORF, the Olympic Refuge Foundation, these partners, and I can
05:06talk about that more if you like, these are activities that we have in some of the
05:13almost 100 countries around the world. We've got operations in about 135 countries
05:19globally to support our broader efforts to protect, assist, and find solutions for displacement,
05:24but we see sport as a very key part of protection and including refugees, not just in
05:31programs that may be a short-term nature, humanitarian response, a way to provide some
05:37life-saving measure, but it is in the long term if refugees and refugee youth in particular are
05:43included in a sports activity, if they have the opportunity to be able to find an outlet,
05:50it improves, we see healing is faster, we see possibilities for development, we see these refugee
05:57kids grow, and in terms of those communities where they find themselves and these 15
06:04national committees that have put these athletes forward as the best of the best, these are
06:09communities that have embraced and included these athletes as those that obviously are at
06:15the pinnacle of their sports, but they're also new members of their communities and they need
06:20safety while their countries may be in turmoil and they need a way to be able to express themselves
06:26and find a way for that social cohesion in the new communities in which they find themselves.
06:31So from our perspective, the sport portfolio, if I can put it that way, has been
06:37really a win-win in terms of the partnerships, and maybe I can talk about the partnerships
06:42very briefly, but we have a hundred, I think it's about 190 partners now that we're working
06:47with in just over, as I said, just over 90 countries around the globe with local actors,
06:54non-governmental organizations, international organizations, some of the sports federations,
07:01community-based groups, women-led groups, and so on, to include as well sport in their protection
07:08work, which we've seen has been a very powerful way to be able to assist, particularly young
07:13people that have been through so much. Well, it's interesting as you talk about partners,
07:16and I think about the private sector and the business community that so often engages with
07:20Forbes, I'm also thinking about sponsorships, and that is how a lot of athletes get their income.
07:26So are you seeing corporate sponsors come in to support some of these athletes?
07:33You know, it's each time, so this is the third team that has competed at the Olympics,
07:39and each time the buzz increases even more than the last, and I don't think it's just because of
07:45the numbers of athletes competing and how great they are, they really truly are, from that time
07:51in Rio, to Tokyo, to now, obviously in Paris, but I think there also is, and sponsorship is
07:59important, support is important, and what happens after these athletes compete, it's not, they don't
08:05become, they're, first of all, they're Olympians for the rest of their lives, but many of them,
08:10and we saw repeat athletes in Tokyo who had competed in Rio, I would expect the same that
08:18would be in place in Los Angeles during the next Olympics. These athletes continue to compete, they
08:24continue to contribute to their communities when they go back home, and they are supported by a
08:31number of individuals, but importantly by the Olympic Refuge Foundation, who has provided
08:38them scholarship, both to allow them to get ready for this huge competition that they're competing
08:43in the last two weeks, but also what happens to them from here, and some of the incredible
08:50supporters, and we have goodwill ambassadors who were former Olympians, we have high-level
08:56supporters who continue to talk about not just their athletic experience, but what their experience
09:02has been as being a refugee, and why the world needs to care, and why all of us need to come
09:07together, private sector, community-based organizations, it obviously, it's got to take a
09:13whole-of-society approach to ensure that this world can be as one to the extent possible.
09:19I think stories are such an important part of forging partnerships and finding support, and I
09:25know, Kelly, you are in Geneva right now, but you are headed to Paris very, very soon to watch some
09:31finals. Can you tell us some specific stories and specific athletes that we should have our eye on
09:37as the Olympics continue to unfold? Oh gosh, well, the athlete that I'll see on one
09:42of the first competitions when I arrive tomorrow is Cindy Nagamba, and Cindy now trains in the
09:50United Kingdom. She's from Cameroon. She's been boxing for a very long time, but that's not the
09:56support, that's not the sport she started with, but she's thrown herself completely into this
10:02competition. And what I'm told about Cindy, and again, I'm looking forward to meeting her,
10:08Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner, has had opportunities to talk with her earlier in the
10:12competition, but she is set to receive the first medal of a refugee athlete at the Olympics out of
10:20these three, and it's a very proud moment. It's a proud moment for her athletic achievement,
10:25and I think it's a proud moment for her to talk about her own experience and what it has meant
10:31in terms of representing the Refugee Olympic Team, and the important support that she has
10:36received from her host country, from the United Kingdom. And Cindy, with 36 other athletes that
10:44come from all corners of the globe, in every continent, can talk about the experiences they've
10:51had in their host communities, but also the experiences that they had, unfortunately,
10:57which caused them to seek that safety. So they're all very individual experiences of loss,
11:03but what we have seen in almost every story is also one of hope, and one where there's opportunity
11:11if we look at refugees, not as a number, not as a victim or just a beneficiary of support,
11:20but as incredible athletes, as contributors to their community, and as people that can
11:27give back to those communities, from everything from an economic point of view, to a social,
11:32to a cultural, and enriches the society in which we live. So that's Cindy Naganda,
11:37and she will be competing in boxing, and she is set to, no matter what, she will medal. So
11:42that will be the first medal for the Refugee Olympic Team. Exactly. That is exciting. Any
11:48other specific athletes that our audience should know about? Well, I understand that I will be able
11:55to see competitions of between eight and nine. So many of the refugees now, they can only stay
12:02in the team facility for three days after their competition. So I'm not going to be able to see
12:07all of them and have a chance to talk with them. But some of them, one, I know that from the Rio
12:14Games, everyone is very familiar with our goodwill ambassador, Yusra Mardini, who I have known over
12:21these eight years, who's an extraordinary story. But there are other stories like her, of people
12:26that have performed really harrowing exits from their communities, sometimes with their families,
12:34sometimes without. They've been able to find new life and new opportunity. And obviously,
12:40we're there to cheer them on, and we hope the rest of the world will as well. What do you hope
12:43emerges from this Olympics, either from your trip to Paris or from these athletes' performance?
12:50Are you looking for more support? Are you looking for a message to the world? What do you hope to
12:56be able to say to me if we were to talk in six months that this moment in time achieved for
13:01the refugee team and the broader UN Refugee Agency? You know, you started with a statistic
13:07at the beginning of this conversation, Maggie, about 120 million. And that's often what people
13:13hear, and then there isn't much more, you know, in terms of that's a number, what does it mean?
13:18Well, it's actually the size of Japan, if you want to put that in perspective. But what I think these
13:24games represent is an opportunity for us to see the people behind the numbers, the real
13:32individuals who have been affected by war, conflict, persecution, and the welcoming that
13:38countries have provided for them in their new home communities, and what inclusion can
13:44really mean. And I think with that kind of a message, rather than talking about refugees
13:50as the other or something to solve, we do need to solve issues of displacement. Those are political
13:57issues, issues that are deeply rooted in circumstances well beyond the control of
14:04families that are affected by this. But the games themselves show that, you know, obviously
14:10we see these elite athletes, but we also see that there is a story behind them becoming
14:17these athletes. What happened to them before, and how can the world really come together
14:22and unite to support, but also to include. Now, you mentioned the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
14:30How many athletes will be on the refugee Olympic team then? And also, is there a chance that
14:36some of these athletes, you mentioned, you know, Cindy's in Great Britain, will we see some
14:41of these athletes competing for their new home, and instead of competing under the refugee
14:47Olympic team? Yeah, you know, and there are choices to be made there for sure. I have no idea
14:53how many may compete in Los Angeles. What I do know is that we built a foundation
15:01along with the IOC and along with the Olympic Refuge Foundation, where with sport being such
15:07an important part of what we're trying to do, that our ability to be able to identify the talent
15:12out there is much greater, so that network continues to expand. And I think, you know, the
15:19very conscious effort that we've made to develop and extend partnerships across the globe in all
15:26of these countries means that there'll be at least the opportunity for many more refugees and
15:32displaced at least to be discovered and supported. And so with that, obviously, we couldn't ask for
15:39better partners. Obviously, IOC is one, but many other sports federations also contribute, including
15:47the Paralympics, UEFA, FIFA. Others have embraced sport as protection, and so in individual sports
15:56as well, we have tried to expand the opportunities for athletes, refugee athletes, to be able to
16:03compete. Well, Kelly, thank you so much for joining us and telling us about these athletes, and I look
16:07forward to watching Cindy and her 36 colleagues compete over the next several days as the Olympics
16:14continue to play out. Have a very safe trip to Paris, and thank you so, so much for your time.
16:21Thank you, Maggie.