PARIS (AP) — When they compete at the Paris Games, they’re just athletes at their peak. The emphasis is not that they’re coming from regions ravaged by war.
The Olympics — focused on celebrating peace — has brought together 10,500 athletes, including those from countries where 110 armed conflicts are raging. These are conflicts that often are not grabbing attention as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominate headlines.
For instance, Cameroon had six athletes in Paris; Myanmar had two, a swimmer and a badminton player; Libya, beset by militia conflict since the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, sent six athletes.
Wars — from Yemen to Syria and beyond — have indelibly shaped athletes from those places who think of the 2024 Olympics beyond sports.
For some, it’s a chance to highlight forgotten human rights violations. For others, it’s a declaration of hope for peace or a chance to reinvent themselves and leave a war-torn past behind.
Yemen: ‘Remnants of sports’
When 16-year-old Yemeni swimmer Yusuf Marwan dove in to an expansive pool in Egypt, where he trained for 20 days before Paris, it was a stark contrast to the 11-meter pool at home. Overwhelmed by the water’s pressure, he realized he couldn’t swim properly. An Olympic-sized pool is 50 meters long.
A yearslong civil war in Yemen has left about 80% of sports facilities non-operational, forcing some federations to rent modest training venues without proper infrastructure, according to the Yemeni Olympic Committee, which helps with the costs.
In 2014, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government to flee from the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of government forces, and in time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people since 2014 and created a humanitarian disaster.
“Preserving the remnants of sports remains a challenge. This situation has significantly diminished youth engagement in sports,” said Akram Al-Ahjri, international relations manager of Yemen’s Olympic committee.
Just four Yemeni athletes were competing, decreasing their chances of winning medals but prompting them to see the Olympics as beyond competition.
Yemen’s Olympic committee has support from the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia but not from either Yemen’s recognized government or the Houthi rebels.
“We are also sending messages of love, peace, friendship, solidarity,” said the administrator of Yemen’s Olympics delegation, Shaif Abdullah Al Shawafi. “Our aim is to participate and show our culture, our history to all people around the world.”
For Marwan, his determination overcame the water pressure of the pool after weeks of training in Egypt and Paris.
