Refugee Olympic Team in selection row

The Rio Olympics begin on Friday, and as well as competing under national flags, some African countries will also participate in the Refugee Team.

Rio Olympics - Olympic Village - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 01/08/2016. Team Refugee's Yiech Pur Biel (R) and Amottun Paulo pose during their welcoming ceremony. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

It's a group of ten athletes who have had to flee their countries of birth. But there's been some controversy over the selection process behind this Refugee team.

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) came knocking in 2015, Rose Nathike Lokonyen was staying at the Ngong refugee camp outside Nairobi.

The South Sudanese runner -- one of the ten Rio athletes -- had spent eight months training with the Tegla Loroupe Peace foundation, run by the Kenyan marathon champion of the same name.

"The Tegla Loroupe foundation organized a trial in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, then I compete in 10 km then I become no. 2 that's when I was selected to go and train in Ngong," Lokonyen told RFI by phone from Brazil.

She joined twenty-eight other refugees who were hand-picked from Kenya's vast refugee camps -- including Dadaab, the biggest in the world -- to train at the Ngong training center.

Fourteen of them were put forward to the IOC, for inclusion in the Refugee team. Five were eventually chosen to go to Rio.

"They just do for us trial after trial until we made the last selection, until we got to this place [Rio de Janeiro]."

Out of the ten athletes who made it to Rio, the five track athletes were all from the Ngong training camp. All of them are South Sudanese. This has raised allegations of bias towards South Sudan in the selection process.

Selection fixed

"When we were living in the [Ngong] camp we were told that the best runner was going to be selected, but as it turns out the worst runner was selected. They're all South Sudanese, no Somali, no Burundian [...] When I was staying there, I was told in the first three months by the monitor that even if you make 100% you will not go to Rio," he said.

Abubakar also questions why an athlete who came second in Kakuma was sent to the Ngong camp: "the no. 2 who was taken is running 800 meters," he said, in reference to Rose Nathike Lokonyen.

Allegations of fixing however have been strongly denied by officials at the Refugee Olympic Team.

"All of them qualified by time. We didn't select just one nationality it's because they qualified by the time. We don't have any pressure in the camp, we don't have any pressure from South Sudan, we're working with the UNHCR team," Jackson Pkemoi, who manages the Refugee Olympic Team's training facility outside Nairobi, told RFI.

He maintains Abubakar is merely a sore loser.

"Mohamed Abubakar was on the list to go to Rio but when the IOC came he disappeared, he wasn't picking his phone, he got lost for one month, got arrested in Mandera [in the north east] ... If he wasn't chosen it's because he has a discipline problem. This is not the kind of image we want to reflect the refugee team."

Beyond Rio

Abubakar says he'd gone to his brother's funeral, and had informed the Team Refugee staff of his whereabouts. Since then, he says he's been kicked out of the Ngong training camp and sent back to Kakuma, where he continues to train day and night.

"You know running is not only for Rio, tomorrow there's another world championship in Russia, there's the Diamond League. It's still important for me to make this running and change the lives for refugees, who don't have any other opportunity. If they see me, I can inspire them. Actually I have to change a lot of lives, God willing."

Until then, it will be up to Rose and her fellow athletes at Rio to offer the world a different perspective on refugees.

"We will try our best to compete with champions. This opportunity will help us to promote peace and healing," says Rose.

South Sudan needs it right now, after fresh fighting displaced thousands.

"For the countries that participate, this is a platform for them to be seen in a sporting perspective, so in terms of business - it's huge!" Martin Keino, CEO of the Keino Sports Group in Kenya, told RFI.

"This brings a positive angle to the country, it illustrates what athletes have gone through to get there, and it will have some positive benefits for South Sudan,  especially as a new country," he said.