A refugee who ran in the Rio Olympics has been chosen to improve sports facilities at displacement camps around the world so people like him can compete at the Tokyo games in 2020.

Yiech Pur Biel has joined the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF), a Qatar-sponsored venture to help people like him do something worthwhile with their lives.
Last month he met Qatar Olympic Committee president HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani at the inaugural board meeting of the ORF in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pur was just ten years old when he was separated from his family during the Sudanese civil war after their grass house was burned to the ground.
Left to fend for himself in the bush, surviving on fruit and leaves, his journey eventually took him to a refugee camp in Kenya where he learned how to run competitively.
Ten years later, he was on the starting blocks for the 800m in Rio, one of ten athletes in the first ever Olympic refugee team. Joining him were two Syrian swimmers, two Congolese judo players, an Ethiopian marathon runner and four other middle distance runners from South Sudan.
All had overcome tremendous hurdles, not only the heartbreak and pain of family separation and loss, but also reaching high levels of fitness in adverse conditions.
‘In the refugee camp we have no facilities – even shoes we don’t have’, said Pur at the time, who was living with 200,000 others at Kenya’s Kakuma camp. ‘There is no gym. Even the weather does not favour training because from morning up to evening it is so hot and sunny’.
Talking as he was about to leave for Rio, the 21-year-old added: ‘Even if I don’t win gold or silver I will show the world that being a refugee you can do something.’
As it happened, Pur failed to qualify from his 800m heats but to him just being there was important. He said he only remembers crying twice in his life; when he was separated from his mother and when he found out he’d been selected to run in Rio.
Last month he was given the opportunity to help others like him when he joined the board of the ORF, which is to set up safe sport facilities for refugee, displaced and vulnerable children.
Pur, now 23, said: ‘“I am proud to represent the 65.6mn forcibly displaced people who have had to flee from their homes because of war, famine, manmade and natural disasters
‘Being on the board of the Olympic Refuge Foundation, I am looking forward to adding my own experiences as a refugee athlete to achieve the foundation objectives to support refugees and internally displaced populations by creating safe environments using sports as tools for changes for young people and refugee children around the world.’
Financed by donations from the Qatar Olympic Committee and the government of Liechtenstein, the ORF is a partnership between the International Olympic Committee and the UNHCR.
Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: ‘Sport for children, especially those displaced, is vital. It helps restore childhood and brings some semblance of normalcy in these young but already broken lives. For refugee children, organised sport activities means a safe space in which they can heal, grow and develop.
‘Sport is also an agent for change for displaced and refugee children working to improve their social, physical and emotional well-being, regain their self-confidence and develop their skills’.
The publicity surrounding Rio led to Pur being reunited on the phone with his mother after news of his participation reached his hometown of Nasir, South Sudan.
But she has now moved to a refugee camp in Ethiopia and, although the two still speak to each other, they have not yet been reunited in person.
In the meantime Pur has begun studying international relations and still goes back to train with the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation in Kenya in the hope that he will be selected for Tokyo.
‘I can show to my fellow refugees that they have a chance, and a hope in life,’ he said. ‘Through education, but also in running, you can change the world.’

Related Story