The Refugee Olympic Team for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games
Four track and field athletes have been named on the Refugee Olympic Team that will compete at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
Clement Niyomuhoza, Florence Masumbe, Nyataba Gatloth and Rachid Rochene will be part of the first Refugee Olympic Team to compete at a Youth Olympic Games, with the athletes set to race over 200m and 800m in Senegal later this year.
Niyomuhoza, who is hosted by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, will compete in the boys’ 800m, while Nyataba Gatloth, also hosted by the NOC of Kenya, will contest the girls’ 800m.
Masumbe and Rochene, both hosted by the NOC of Uganda, will compete in the girls’ and boys’ 200m respectively.
The team was presented by Yiech Pur Biel, Chef de Mission of the Refugee Olympic Team for Dakar 2026, during the recent 146th IOC Session.
“These young people have an opportunity to be great ambassadors and represent the millions of young refugees across the world,” said Biel. “I really believe that Dakar will be a life-changing moment for them, but also for refugees watching them worldwide.”
Biel knows that pathway well. Originally from South Sudan, he spent much of his youth in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya before going on to compete in the 800m for the first Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He has since been elected as an IOC Member, become a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, and sits on the Board of the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
“It has been 10 years since I competed at the Rio Olympic Games as a member of the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team,” Biel added. “Since then, sport has truly changed my life. Sport has opened doors for me, and it has also allowed me to change the lives of other refugees – to be a role model for them and hopefully leave a legacy of inspiring others.”
The Dakar 2026 Refugee Olympic Team will be made up of athletes based in Africa and hosted by the NOCs of Kenya and Uganda. Alongside the four track and field athletes, two other team members – one in judo and one in taekwondo – will also compete in Dakar.
A number of the athletes were selected following trials in Kenya and Uganda. In Uganda, where almost two million asylum seekers and refugees are hosted, athletes were selected from Game Connect, an Olympic Refuge Foundation-funded community programme. Their progression marks the first time the ORF’s community work has been directly linked to elite pathways through its Refugee Athlete Support programme, which is funded through Olympic Solidarity.
World Athletics announced earlier this year that, following the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva, it had pledged to continue providing competition opportunities, training support, media training and safeguarding provisions for refugee athletes, with a focus on the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships Beijing 27.
Since its creation in 2016, the World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team has developed into the world’s only year-round full-time refugee team programme. The team made its first competitive appearance as part of the Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and has competed at most World Athletics Series events since. Its U20 team was formed as a pilot in 2022, and the programme has since expanded from Kenya into Uganda in collaboration with the Olympic Refuge Foundation, the National Olympic Committee of Uganda, Uganda Athletics and UNHCR.
The Olympic Refuge Foundation and Olympic Solidarity will continue to support the selected athletes in the build-up to Dakar 2026. They will take part in a training camp in Kaptagat, Kenya, alongside Kenya-based refugee athletes aiming to compete as part of the LA28 Refugee Olympic Team.
The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games will bring together young athletes from around the world across three host zones: Dakar, Diamniadio and Saly.
