African Australians Athletes caption

Meet some of our African-Australian representatives in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics!!

Peter Bol

Sudanese-born.

Nagmeldin ‘Peter’ Bol was born in Sudan, with his family fleeing the civil war when he was four years old. The Bol family lived in a refugee camp in Egypt for about four years before immigrating to Australia.

When Bol was growing up, his dad told the kids stories about Sudan’s conflict and how he wanted to take his kids out of there and work towards a better life.

Peter commenced his athletics journey at 16 after an athletics school carnival. One of his teachers approached Bol and convinced him to join an athletics club, promising to help him find a mentor, a club, and a coach.

He participates in the 800m Athletics.

Bendere Oboya

Ethiopian-born

She arrived in Australia in 2003 aged 3 with her family including 5 siblings. She participated in athletics from an early age, initially at Blacktown Little Athletics, but when she was 16, a school athletics trip to Canada encouraged her to take an athletics career more seriously, locating a coach and commencing training.

She is participating in the 400m, 4×400 Relay.

Duop Reath

South-Sudanese-born

Born in South Sudan, Duop Reath moved to Brisbane at age 9 with his family before eventually settling in the suburbs of Perth. After a late start in basketball, Reath’s height and athleticism quickly made him a strong prospect and was offered to play college basketball at Lee College in Texas. And after that playing in the NBA.

Now with Tokyo 2020 on the horizon, Reath will look to continue the ever-ascending trajectory of his professional career.

Refugee Olympic team caption:

The Refugee Olympic Team was officially created in 2016 by the International Olympic Committee [IOC]. At the 2016 Games, the NOC was represented by 10 athletes who originally hailed from Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ahead of the 2020 Games in Tokyo, the IOC selected 29 athletes to compete across 12 different sports, with six athletes from the 2016 team returning to once again represent the Refugee Olympic Team.

Today we want you to know Cyrille Tchatchet II.

A Cameroonian weightlifter!!

Cyrille comes from a family of six children and is the 3rd born. His mother separated from his father in the year 2000 and Cyrille and his siblings were looked after by their mother who is a businesswoman.

Cyrille took up weightlifting at the age of 14 after seeing the picture of his cousin’s father who was a weightlifter representing Cameroon. He, therefore, started training at the Golden weightlifting club before switching to the WOCA weightlifting club.

Cyrille moved to the United Kingdom in 2014 and obtained refugee status in 2016. He decided to pursue a BSc Mental Health Nursing degree at Middlesex University after experiencing mild depression while claiming asylum and now works as a mental health nurse.

In June 2021, he was selected to represent the Refugee Olympic Team in weightlifting. He is also one of six COVID health workers who carried the Olympic flag during the Opening Ceremony.

Nothing is impossible!! Get inspired by our Athletes!!