Who is Filippo Grandi, the man who made refugees "visible" at the Olympics

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, was awarded the Olympic Laurel during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

• Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was awarded the Olympic Laurel
• Grandi is one of the main supporters of the Refugee Olympic Team
• In Paris, the Refugee Team will be the largest ever in the history of the Olympics

“Sport is a symbol of hope and peace, which are unfortunately in short supply today.The refugee team is a beacon for people around the world.”As Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed his satisfaction while being awarded theOlympic laurel, an International Olympic and Paralympic Committee (IOC) award honoring achievement in education, culture, development and peace through sport, during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Grandi is a leading figure on the international level, well known and appreciated for his activities aimed at improving the living conditions of many refugees, i.e. people forced to abandon their homes due to violence, wars and persecution around the world.And in doing so, he has always been convinced that sport had a fundamental role, given that, as Grandi himself reiterated, "it brings people together, benefits physical and mental health, offers children positive role models and teaches valuable lessons in life".

UNHCR, the UN agency that Grandi leads, collaborates with the IOC and the Olympic Refugee Foundation to support the presence of refugees from all over the world at the Olympics through a squad created in 2016 and that in these Games, with 37 athletes, it is the largest ever.

Who is Filippo Grandi, a life dedicated to refugees

Filippo Grandi was born in Milan in 1957, has a career lasting over twenty years within the United Nations.He has worked on refugee-related projects in Sudan, Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kenya, Benin, Ghana and Liberia.

In the letter with which in 2010 he commented on his appointment as general commissioner of UNRWA (United Nations Agency for the Relief and Employment of Palestinian Refugees in the Near East), a position he held for five years before moving to UNHCR, he described that achievement as “an honor that is not given to a single individual but a mission to be carried out with and for the refugees of Palestine.”

The Olympic Laurel received before the eyes of the whole world is the celebration of a career spent helping the least.

The refugee Olympic team in Paris 2024

The refugee Olympic team is made up of male and female athletes who for political, humanitarian and social reasons cannot carry out their sporting activity in their country of origin, and therefore as refugees they are welcomed by a different nation which allows them to train and continue practicing sports.

For these Olympics, the refugee team is made up not only of 37 male and female athletes, but also of fifteen different national Olympic committees that host them, and among these there is also theItaly.

The male and female athletes will compete in twelve sports different:athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, judo, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling.

At the Olympics in Rio 2016, the first in which refugees were present, the team was made up of ten athletes, who they have become twenty-nine to Tokyo in 2021.

The composition of the refugee Olympic team is based primarily on sporting performance.Almost all selected athletes receive scholarships that are designed to help them train both with the aim of participating in the Olympics but also to build a future.The team is chosen by the IOC, while the scholarships are managed by the Foundation, established to provide ongoing support to refugees through sport.The refugee status of the team members is verified by UNHCR.

The team represents all the fleeing populations and for this reason in its construction we try to guarantee a certain balance of sport and gender, as well as the geographical distribution of the athletes' countries of origin.