Refugee athlete to make history for second time at Youth Olympics

What the report says

Yiech Pur Biel is set to make history again at the Youth Olympics, this time as the leader of the first refugee team to compete at the event, according to BBC Africa. Biel previously represented the first Olympic refugee team at Rio 2016 in the 800m, and now serves as Chef de Mission for a six-athlete squad at the Dakar 2026 Youth Games in Senegal.

BBC reported that the team includes young athletes who have lived through displacement, including judo competitor Arno Yafunga Botay, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and spent time in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee settlement. Biel said the group wants to show both sporting ambition and the wider reality facing refugees, especially in Africa, where displacement is a major issue. The Youth Olympics are being held in Senegal, marking the first Olympic sporting event staged on African soil.

Biel’s own background helps explain the significance of the moment. He fled South Sudan as a child after his village was attacked and rebuilt his life in Kakuma, where he first took up running through Olympic trials. In the BBC interview, he described the role as an honour and said he hopes to pass on lessons from his own journey to the younger athletes. The team’s participation is being presented not only as a sporting debut, but also as a message about opportunity, resilience and the needs of displaced young people.