Team Refugee

world are in training hoping to compete in the newly created Team of

Refugee Olympic Athletes under the Olympic flag. This is a special

programme, Team Refugee. All eyes are on Rio as the world's

most elite athletes hope to make their countries proud. And, for the

first time, the International Olympic Committee have announced

there will be a new team created for refugee athletes. We will welcome

these refugee athletes to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag

and with the Olympic anthem. We are all touched and moved by the

magnitude of the current worldwide refugee crisis. 43 refugees have

been identified as hopefuls. Only ten will be selected. I am Catharina

Moh and I will follow the journeys of some of those athletes in

Germany, in Kenya, and here in Brazil. This is not just about

winning medals, but a chance to reclaim their identity and save

their families. We are going to Rio to show the world.

Last year, Germany received almost half a million asylum applications.

Officials say at least 1 million people have arrived seeking refuge

across the country. Including here in Berlin. Many of them from Syria,

forced to leave because of civil war.

Yusra Mardini and her sister ended up in a refugee camp on the western

outskirts of Berlin last September. She inspired me from the first time.

She told me about her dream of a gold medal at the Olympics and I

said well, well, well. Look at your best times. You did not this in two

years. She said, I can do it, not now but give me the time to practise

and do that. We started slow, in the first weeks.

Now we are on a normal level. She has, each week, round about 30 hours

of training. In intensive weeks, more.

What is the goal for Rio? It is a goal to be there, take part and swim

her personal best. That is a realistic bowl-macro. -- realistic

goal. Whilst her father is not her

official coach he still comes to the swimming pool every day. Tell me

about how difficult it was training through the war.

After much persuasion from his daughters, he eventually agreed to

the girls leaving Syria. Yusra Mardini was 17 at the time.

As Yusra's journey to Rio continues, in a different corner of the world

there are others who share her ambition.

In Kenya, this coach is putting her runners through their paces. Most of

them are refugees. She held time trials in the country's two largest

refugee camps and selected the fastest to develop elite athletes.

It is early morning. Rebecca and the other athletes are preparing the

training camp for an important visit by the IOC. She is one of 30 people

living here. Most of them have left their families in the refugee camps

and have since had little contact with them. My goal is to make sure I

succeed in life, so that I move my family to somewhere they can feel

safe, somewhere my siblings can go to a good school, and also this

running, I am going to work hard for it and maybe it can take me

somewhere. To have refugee status. As an

athlete I realise there is so much I can do for our people instead of

just competing in Europe, enjoying life. The new president of the IOC,

who is a close friend, he loves sport and humanity. He said OK, I

will help you to setup this camp. She told me that is when she went to

the refugee camps hoping that out of the hundreds of thousands of people,

she could find a handful with enough raw talent to turn them into top

runners. The IOC finally arrived with

Athletics Kenya to assess their progress and to start short listing

athletes for the refugee team. They have been in their two hours in a

closed meeting. We do not know the outcome of what will happen, but

everyone is waiting in the sunshine, waiting to see what happens. I have

some videos from the camp. While the meeting goes on, Rebecca tells me

about her past. I was born in a refugee camp in

Ethiopia and later we were repatriated and war broke out where

my dad was killed. Where was your mother? She is in South Sudan, I do

not know exactly where she is. What happened when she went away, and I

was at home with my grandmother and siblings. We ran away together. Was

that hard, leaving her? It was really hard because for some years,

but we thought she was actually dead.

Rebecca was one of 4 million people forced to flee because of the

Sudanese conflict. She has been living here, the

largest refugee camp in the world. The majority of refugees there are

from Somalia. And the South Sudanese, from Burundi, we are the

minority. Most of us are Christian. We are facing challenges due to

those religious differences. Also, Al-Shabab, it is really horrible for

us. Sometimes a lot of bombing. Sometimes they will come and

threaten our people in the community, especially when you have

a shop. Many ladies from the refugee camp, they end up giving up on life.

Every time we wake up we feel, OK, we have to thank god at least we

have seen a new day. It is the day after the IOC visit

and Rebecca and the others are training hard.

They have been told that, as it stands, no one's running times

aren't good enough to qualify for the refugee team and they have a

week to resubmit the ones. Rebecca must shave four seconds from her

personal best to qualify. Qualification, we are struggling for

them to qualify. But the ones who will be selected will be the best to

go to Rio. They are refugees. If they were in their countries and

trading they could run better. We are not going to Rio to look for

medals, but to show the world that through sport, peace can be

achieved. With the help of the scholarship

given by the international Olympics committee, Yusra Mardini is able to

swim and go to an elite sports school at the Olympic Park. Her

English and German have improved and she is ever more determined to make

it onto the team. It is Sunday, a rare day off from

training. After my mum had three German lessons with her, and she

said she is the same age, you want to meet with her. We went to a 60s

diner. We had a hamburger and we were friends.

You can move his eyes. What did you think of each other when you first

met? She is crazy like me. I thought she is crazy and I would have a lot

of fun. For the short time she is learning

German... Sometimes it is hard to pronounce some words. That is a

famous shopping street. Yusra is settled in Germany but she misses

Syria. She tells me about the day she left.

Yusra told me the engine had stopped and the overcrowded boat was

sinking. So she and her sister had to get out and swim, whilst other

bailed water from the boat. After three hours in the water,

Yusra and the others made it safely to Lesbos. From Greece they made

their way like the thousands before and after them to Europe. It took

them 25 days to get to Germany. In Brazil, Yolande Mabika and Popole

Misenga are within reach of the Olympics. They are refugees living

and training in Rio de Janeiro. They both came from one of the areas

worst affected during the Congolese civil war. When they came to Rio in

2013 for the world judo championships, they escaped from the

team and made a bid for asylum. A local charity stepped in to help

them continue training here in Brazil.

They train in a favela west of Rio. The facilities are basic. But their

coaches are among the best. One of the biggest challenges was

having to change their approach to judo.

That was the last day Yolande saw her family. She does not even know

if they are still alive. Popole is now married with a

one-year-old son. He is the stepfather to his wife's three

children. Now they both have just one mission.

Make it onto the refugee team and, perhaps, their families back home

will know they survived. With just weeks to go, training has

intensified. She does on average 240 lengths per day, including one hour

in the gym on top of homework and school. There is little time for

much else. It is quite great coming here to

watch Yusra Mardini train because now, when I see her like everyone

else, on the TV, I think I will feel proud watching what she has achieved

and how far she has come. For the past seven months, the IOC

has been following the progress of 43 refugee athletes around the

world. Like Yusra Mardini, they have all somehow overcome huge personal

adversity and found hope along the way. Now, ten will go to Rio to

represent the 59 million people who have been forced to flee their

homes. Yusra Mardini. They have qualified for the Olympic

Games. Rebecca did not make the team. She remained four seconds

short of the qualifying time. But, five runners from the Kenya group

have been selected. And their coach has been chosen to lead the Team of

Refugee Olympic Athletes to Rio. The working week ended on an active

note with heavy downpours, thunderstorms and funnel clouds