Farida Abaroge and Kasra Mehdipournejad: meet the flagbearers of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony 

During the two weeks of competition, the athletes gave their best on the field of play, achieving their dreams of performing on the Olympic stage. Among the great achievements is the first-ever EOR Olympic medal won by boxer Cindy Ngamba, who claimed bronze in a historic moment for a team that competed for the first time at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Cindy was one of the EOR flagbearers at the opening ceremony.

Two different journeys, one Olympic dream

Farida grew up in Jimma, Ethiopia, passionate about running, football and karate. Forced to flee her homeland at a young age, she travelled through many countries before finally arriving in France, where she sought asylum and has since become a refugee. She properly discovered running when she arrived in France and quickly began to discover her natural talent and passion for the sport. As a recipient of the Refugee Athlete Scholarship, Farida trains in Strasbourg.

“I am someone who is far from my family, who left my country, and today, I find myself alone. Yet I won’t give up after everything I’ve been through. Thanks to my dream, I never gave up,” Farida said.

Having been forced to flee his home country, Kasra now lives and trains in Germany. He has enjoyed a string of successes in recent years, clinching gold medals at the Dutch and Belgian opens in 2018, and won gold and silver at the Polish and Austrian opens respectively in 2019. He recently represented the European Refugee Team at the European Games in Poland.

When asked what motivates him to keep training, he said it was the women in his life, replying: “First, my mother. And second, my wife.” His wife is also a taekwondo champion, having won multiple championships in Asia.

One female and one male flagbearer at the opening ceremony

For the first time, at Tokyo 2020 all participating National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were given the opportunity by the IOC to send a strong message of inclusive Olympic Games where women and men have equal prominence. The IOC’s protocol guidelines were amended accordingly to allow one female athlete and one male athlete from each NOC to carry the flag jointly during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Summer Games.