Syrian refugee Ibrahim al Hussein, who lost his leg during a 2012 bombing, is competing at the Rio Paralympics in September. The Hellenic Paralympic Committee announced that the man who is living, working and training in Greece will be one of two refugees taking part as part of the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team.
Participation in the Olympics is a dream come true for the young athlete who had been hospitalized for a year in Turkey before crossing to Samos via the Aegean in 2014 and requesting asylum in Greece.
He will compete in the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle S10 (provisional) as a leg amputee. His Greek coach is Eleni Kokkinou.
It is the first time that such a team will compete at the Paralympic Games following a similar initiative for refugee participation at the Summer Olympics in August. “We are very happy that our proposal for the formation of such a team was accepted,” said Hellenic Paralympic Committee President Yiorgos Fountoulakis. In addition, Fountoulakis stated that the Hellenic paralympic committee sees al Hussein as their own “child.”
Al Hussein represented refugees carrying the Olympic Flame inside a refugee camp in Athens last April, hours before it was handed over to the Brazilian hosts of the Summer Olympics.
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