A refugee team of 10 chosen for Rio Games

Olympics

Six refugee men and four refugee women will participate under the Olympic flag. The International Olympic Committee hopes it will provide a message of hope. The news comes as the IOC tackles a number of other issues.

CCTV’s Dan Williams reports.

The “to-do” list for International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is beginning to mount up. Key decisions on doping, the Zika virus and Rio 2016 readiness top a busy IOC agenda.

Added to that, there is the potential ban on Russia’s track and field team for Rio.

The International Association of Athletics Federation will decide on June 17th whether to uphold or lift its suspension of Russia and that will be followed by an IOC summit meeting four days later.

The impact of the Zika virus in Brazil has seen a number of athletes pull out of the Rio games altogether. Although the IOC remains optimistic that the risk of infection will be dramatically reduced by August… some of the board members have sympathy for athletes having to make such decisions.

This IOC meeting wasn’t just about addressing the negatives there was the altogether more upbeat news of the refugee Olympic team. Ten refugee athletes from Africa and the Middle East have been selected to compete under the Olympic flag in Rio.