Photo Credit: UNCR
The Refugee Paralympic Team made history recently, winning its first-ever medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. They wrapped up this past weekend following ten days of intense competition. Competing in six sporting events, the dynamic refugee team included eight athletes and one guide runner.
The team won bronze medals in the women’s Para Taekwondo event and the men’s T11 400m sprint, in which athletes with near-total visual impairment compete.
The refugees competed under the International Paralympic Committee flag, carried at the opening ceremony by Guillaume Atangana, who won his bronze medal in the T11 400m race. During the closing ceremony, Para Taekwondo bronze medalist Zakia Khudadadi hoisted the flag.
Along with the squad’s two medal winners, athletes competing for the Refugee Paralympic Team competed in Para shot put and 100m, Para powerlifting, Para table tennis, Para triathlon, and Wheelchair fencing. Additionally, former team member Abbas Karimi, who now competes with the United States Paralympic team, won two silver medals in swimming. The Paris games mark the third Paralympic entry for the Refugee team.
Based in six countries, the Refugee Paralympic Team represents the more than 120 million people around the world displaced due to violence, human rights violations, and other challenges.
Refugees’ historic results come just after Olympic boxer Cindy Ngamba took home the bronze in the women’s 75k boxing event earlier this summer, marking the Refugee Olympic Team’s first-ever medal.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees partners with the International Paralympic Committee and the Olympic Refuge Foundation to support refugee athletes at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Check out our Olympic features, spotlighting world class immigrant and refugee athletes who have represented the U.S. in the Olympic Games: