“It is a moment in which people that have often lost everything can gain back dignity, identity and give back to the communities hosting them,”
— Filippo Grandi, U.N. high commissioner for refugees
“Paris was my goal. Dreams come true.”
— Krystsina Tsimanouskaya
Athletes train their whole lives to try to make it to the Olympics for the chance at earning gold. They give up many of the other activities that young men and women consider to be a normal part of growing up, and they devote countless hours to their craft and hope for an opportunity to bring a medal home. Yet, for some who come to the Olympics from countries torn by war, beset by poverty or ruled by oppressive regimes, the Olympics present an opportunity that has nothing to do with athletic achievement.
The defection of athletes during overseas trips or competitions is certainly not unusual. Several of the Cuban baseball players who have played Major League Baseball in the United States defected from their homeland during a competitive trip overseas. The Olympic games are, of course, the most visible of international competitions and are conducted under incredibly tight security. Still, there is a long history of athletes defecting during the Olympics.
In 1956, shortly after the Soviets crushed the Hungarian revolution, nearly half of the Hungarian team’s 100-member delegation to the games in Melbourne defected. Several members of the Afghanistan delegation defected during the 1980 Moscow games, and four Romanians failed to return home from Canada after the 1976 games in Montreal.
Not all of the defections take place at the games themselves. During the qualifying tournament for the 2008 games, nearly one third of the Cuban soccer team defected, and during qualifying play for the 2012 games one of Cuba’s male soccer player sought asylum in the U.S. and two female players did the same in Canada.
Prior to the start of the 2012 Olympics in London, three athletes from Sudan filed applications seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. Following the completion of their events that year, seven athletes from Cameroon went missing. They later sought formal asylum in the U.K. as well. And in 2021, Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya applied for asylum in Japan after her nation’s Olympic committee tried to force her on a plane to repatriate her against her will. She was eventually granted citizenship in Poland and represented that nation in this year’s Olympics, missing the 200m semifinals by less than a tenth of a second.
Athletes who have been granted asylum in other nations before the games can still compete at the Olympics under the banner of the Refugee Olympic Team. Thirty-seven athletes are members of the team at this year’s games, having fled eleven different countries. The team has appeared at the last three summer Olympics, and for the first time this year, is guaranteed a medal, as Cindy Ngamba, a refugee from Cameroon (who is living in the U.K. because she faced criminal prosecution in her home country based solely on her sexual orientation), can do no worse than a bronze medal in women’s middleweight boxing. The finals in her weight class will be taking place right about the time this column hits your mailbox.
Perina Lokure Nakang and her family fled the Sudanese Civil War for a refugee camp in Kenya. She set a personal best time in the women’s 800m qualifying heats, but failed to advance. Five athletes competing in Taekwondo are on the refugee team. They include three Iranians, among them Hadi Tiranvalipour, who won the gold medal for Iran at the 2015 Asian Junior Championships, but had to flee the country to Italy after speaking out in favor of women’s rights in his home country.
Fernando Jorge Enriquez won a gold medal in canoeing for Cuba in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He defected a short time later while training in Mexico by swimming across the Rio Grande River in Texas. He was granted asylum in the United States and now lives in Florida. He made it back to the quarterfinals this past Wednesday, but just missed out on making the semifinals. At the time of this writing, eight other refugee athletes remain active by means of advancing from early rounds, or have yet to compete.
In the United States, requests for asylum are handled by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, now a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Asylum can be requested based on race, religion, nationality, political persecution, membership in a particular social group, or to avoid torture. Specific details about torture, mistreatment and false imprisonment are requested on the U.S. asylum application. The criminal record of the applicant, their prior participation in any questionable groups or organizations and any unexplained delay in the filing of their application for asylum are all factors that may result in their application being denied. At the end of calendar year 2022, slightly more than one and one half million asylum applications were pending in U.S. immigration courts.
David Hejmanowski is judge of the Probate/Juvenile Division of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, where he has served as magistrate, court administrator, and now judge, since 2003. He has written a weekly column on law and history for The Gazette since 2005.
