Olympic Solidarity is currently supporting 55 Refugee Athlete Scholarship-Holders, who are training in the hope of competing at Tokyo 2020 this summer. They come from 13 countries and are hosted by 21 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) across all 5 continents, representing 12 sports.

While attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021, many of the 51 Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders are balancing intense training schedules with efforts to give back to their host communities and support fellow refugees in navigating the additional challenges caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we put the spotlight on four inspirational projects that are showing other refugees what’s possible.

The people of Mongolia had been waiting a long time for a gold medal-winning hero and, in judoka Tuvshinbayar Naidan, they found a man worthy of every accolade. Four years after “healing his nation” by securing a first-ever Olympic crown, Naidan simply refused to be beaten by serious injury.