Nigara Shaheen on finding her second family in the Refugee Olympic Team

When Nigara Shaheen was a child refugee, she would edit photos of herself with the Olympic rings.

Back then, it was just a dream and one that she thought was unattainable, even after leaving Afghanistan by traversing the mountains for two days and two nights. Shaheen never stopped dreaming.

Now she is preparing to go to not her first, but second Olympic Games at Paris 2024.

It was at her Olympic debut in 2021 where those photos with the Olympic rings came to fruition, and she realised that her impossible dream was in fact possible.

“Even my mum has a photo of me [with the rings],” Shaheen tells Olympics.com, “and when I made it to Tokyo, she showed me and asked, ‘do you remember this?’

• IOC Refugee Olympic Team gather for Paris 2024 camp in historic Bayeux: ‘It's a lesson in hope’

“I remember that, even though it was such a big deal and somehow impossible, I kept drawing those rings and that’s how it happened.”

A dreamed reality embodied by the Olympic rings, Shaheen’s astounding journey has led her to the City of Lights and a second Olympics appearance.

Nigara Shaheen, an Olympian and a refugee for a second time

Shaheen did not expect to still be a refugee after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The judoka made her Olympic debut in 2021 for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, competing in the judo mixed team and the women’s -70kg events in Japan.

After the Games, Shaheen hoped to return to Afghanistan via Pakistan to start working with her recently obtained master’s degree. But she found herself back to square one, unable to return home and still a refugee.

Shaheen recalls, “I always say that I became a refugee for a second time. I had to be a refugee again, I was stuck in Pakistan for a year until we found a solution, and then I came to Canada as a student refugee and a refugee athlete.

“I would explain the second time like this: what does it feel like when your whole world falls apart? I had plans to open my own dojo but all of a sudden, I was stuck at home with no future plans. I cannot find the words to explain what that feeling was like, but all I knew was that I was hopeless.”

Shaheen now lives in Canada, where she was welcomed in unlike anywhere else she had been. It was and is important for her to keep close contact with her friends and family around the world, knowing how many people she will be representing in Paris.

**“**As an athlete, I know that so many people will be watching me,” she admits. “It's a lot of pressure, but at the same time, if I look back at my journey and how I survived those days, that should also give people hope. I grew up in Pakistan and Afghanistan, I went to Russia then Canada, then back to Pakistan. I always find something to connect with people.”

And although she is once again a refugee, she also has the chance to compete at a second Olympics for the Refugee Olympic Team.

“I have learned a lot throughout my journey from Tokyo to Paris,” Shaheen says, “I thank God I got the chance to compete a lot. Even with every loss, I learn something new.”

“I found a family with the Refugee Olympic Team”

One benefit of being a returning athlete with the Refugee Olympic Team is being back in an environment which Shaheen has grown so fond of.

The 37-strong team gathered in Bayeux for the Paris 2024 training camp, their first chance to get together ahead of the Games. Even before that meet, her love for her teammates and pride of being part of the team shines through.

“I found a family with the Refugee Olympic Team,” Shaheen explains. “Our journey from Tokyo to Paris, you can see that there’s so many differences that we relate with. We are a team and a family. We celebrate New Year together, we eat together, we all get together and celebrate.”

That is the very spirit that the Olympic Games and the Refugee Olympic Team reflect: unity through sport, the common goals and values that we all share, regardless of where we come from. It really is a second family for athletes like Shaheen, who has spent so long away from home and from her own family on the other side of the world.

“Whenever I have a training camp or competition, I'm excited for all the physical challenges that I will face as an athlete. But at the same time, I'm so excited to meet my family; I live alone in Canada, so whenever I get a chance to meet my team, I get as excited as I do when I go to see my own family back home.”

And does Shaheen have a best friend in the team? “I think it’s so obvious!” she laughs. “I found my other sister through the refugee team, Muna [Dahouk]. She’s my best friend, and it was something that developed so naturally.

“The first time I met her in 2020, I saw that she was just like me. We were scared, but we connected the minute we met each other. Our journeys are so similar.”

Shaheen and Dahouk competed together at Tokyo 2020 in the judo mixed team event in 2021, and three years on, they will hope to improve on their debut result in the same event.

Shaheen, representing refugees around the world at Paris 2024

When you have lived in four countries and represent a global community of 100 million people, Shaheen knows what it takes to be part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

She has already achieved her Olympic dream and now has another shot at gold in Paris, keen to fight for herself and the millions of refugees in the best way possible.

“I know that millions of people around the world dream of being part of this, so I feel honoured,” Shaheen states. “I have to use it in the best possible way because not all people get this platform and media attention. I want to spread the message of hope and strength by my presence into the team at the Olympics.”

The Olympic judo competition at Paris 2024 will take place at the Champ-de-Mars Arena on 26 July.

Shaheen and her teammates will compete in the mixed team events on 3 August, with the preliminary rounds in the morning before the potential medal event. Winning a medal would be a monumental achievement, but just being in Paris flying the flag for refugees is a victory in itself.

“I feel so responsible because, when I was growing up as a kid, I didn't have any refugee role models,” Shaheen says. “I want all these little girls, all these refugee kids to see me on TV, to relate with me and see that, even if they don't have any opportunity, any facilities, they can achieve them.

“This team is not only about the sports achievements, but also highlighting the struggles of refugees and what they are going through. If I didn't get to be part of this team, nobody ever would know that.”