Identity politics, affirmative action, and victimhood have arrived at the International Olympics.
Not only are pre-op transgenders (including fully-biological males who will compete as females) now allowed to compete, the 2016 Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will have a “refugee” team!
Since its inception, the Olympics Games have been nation or country-based, i.e., individuals compete as nationals of a country. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has given its approval for 43 athletes to compete at this summer’s Rio Olympics as a team of Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA) under the Olympic flag.
As BBC News reports, March 2, 2016, IOC president Thomas Bach said, “By welcoming ROA to the Olympic Games in Rio, we want to send a message of hope to all the refugees of the world. This team will be treated like all the other teams. This team may end up between five and 10 athletes maybe. We have no target. It depends very much on the sporting qualifications.”
IOC president Thomas Bach is a German lawyer
Selection criteria for the team of Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA) are sporting ability, “personal circumstances” (whatever that means), and United Nations-verified refugee status. Athletes will then be supported with funds to train. They will be housed in the athletes’ village and will enter the opening ceremony as the penultimate team, ahead of hosts Brazil.
So far, fewer than half of the 7.5 million tickets issued for the August 5-21 Rio Games have been sold.
My questions are:
- If these “refugee” athletes are so physically fit as to be Olympian athletes, why don’t they return to their home country and fight?
- Why are the athletes not competing as members of the country that had generously taken them into their fold?
- How long is an athlete classified as a “refugee”? Let’s say an individual had fled from Syria to Germany 5 years ago, is this person still considered a “refugee”?
~Eowyn
