27-year-old Syrian refugee Ibrahim Al-Hussein will today carry the Olympics flame across the Elaionas camp in the Greek capital, Athens, as part of the torch relay for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The symbolic gesture is meant to show solidarity with the world’s refugees at a time when millions are fleeing war and persecution worldwide.
Al-Hussein lost part of his right leg to a bomb in 2012, during Syria’s civil war that destroyed his city. He fled to Turkey, and crossed from its coast to the eastern Greek island of Samos in early 2014 in a rubber dinghy that carried 16 people. Unlike most other migrants, he chose to stay in financially-struggling Greece, seeking and receiving asylum there.
Even after losing his leg, his love for sports have never fades any bit. He actively participates in freestyle swimming and wheelchair basketball.
Al-Hussein will receive the flame from the head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos at the Elaionas camp that is home to about 1500 refugees and other migrants.
The Rio flame was lit in Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Games in southern Greece, on April 21.
It will be handed over to Brazilian officials on Wednesday (NZT Thursday) after covering 2250km in Greece, with stops including Marathon, the Acropolis and the rebuilt ancient stadium of Athens where the first modern games were held in 1896.
The flame arrives in Brazil on May 3, and will be relayed across the vast country by about 12,000 torchbearers before the August 5 opening ceremony in Rio’s Maracana Stadium.
