First-ever athlete granted FIS Refugee Team status

The Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) announced the addition of eight new Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders, including the first-ever winter sports athlete, Alpine racer Atefeh Ahmadi from Iran, who is being hosted by Germany.

As part of her status with the ORF, Ahmadi now has an official FIS code, under FRT (FIS Refugee Team) and can join the German Junior team during the upcoming season in training and competitions.

She joins 70 other athletes in the programme, which is funded by Olympic Solidarity. In total, the athletes hail from 12 different countries, compete in 14 different sports and are hosted by 23 different National Olympic Committees.

About the Programme:
To be eligible for the programme, athletes must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognised by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

The Refugee Olympic Team, together with the Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders, represent the challenges and resilience of more than 110 million refugees worldwide.

The Refugee Athlete Support programme is funded by the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Solidarity programme and managed by the ORF, which acts in lieu of a traditional NOC for refugee athletes. The ORF ensures that where NOCs are hosting refugee athletes, they can support them to ensure access to high-level training facilities and national and international competition.

Beyond managing the Refugee Athlete Support Programme, the ORF has an ambitious goal for one million young people affected by displacement to access safe sport by the end of 2024. Through programmes, the Foundation provides access to safe sport for displaced people, while through partnerships the ORF is building a movement which guarantees that young people affected by displacement have access to safe sport and ensures that safe sport is widely adopted as a tool to support those affected by displacement.