Tahlavini (Louis) Gabrisos and Jamal Abdelmajid, who led the International Olympic Committee’s refugee team to unprecedented achievements in Tokyo 2020, have been selected for the refugee Olympic team for the Paris 2024 Games.
The International Olympic Committee published the list of athletes of the refugee team for the Paris 2024 Games.
Among the 36 athletes who will compete in 12 disciplines, the team includes Tahlvini Gabrisos (Ha’poel Emek Hafer) from Eritrea who will compete in the marathon and Jamal Abdelmaj Yad (Hapoel Tel-Aviv) from Sudan who will compete in the 5,000 meter run.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Tahalvini carried the delegation’s flag at the opening ceremony and finished in 16th place in the marathon with a time of 2:14:02 hours.
During the preparations for Paris 2024, he improved his current personal best of 2:09:00 hours, which he set at the Seville Marathon 2023. In the 5,000 meters, Abdelmajid achieved a fantastic result in the qualifiers and improved his personal best by 12 seconds with a time of 13: 42.98 and ranked 23rd.
Since then he has made significant progress and gained a lot of experience in international elite competitions, he set personal records in 10,000 meters – 28:09 minutes, and reached an impressive achievement (ninth place) in the 2023 European Field Race Championships in Brussels.
The two talented athletes receive a package of support from the Olympic Committee in Israel and are integrated into the activities of the Athletics Association in Israel, even though they do not represent Israel in the Olympic Games.
The two receive a monthly scholarship from the International Olympic Committee.
Gili Lustig, CEO of the Israel Olympic Committee: “The Olympic Committee is very happy to receive the announcement that Jamal and Halvini will represent the refugee team for the second time after successfully doing so in Tokyo. Both are an integral part of the Israeli Olympic family and they receive our full support in preparations for their appearance in Paris 2024.
We believe in them, love them and wish them success.”
Ami Baran, Chairman of the Athletics Association: “We are happy and excited that our two athletes, Takhluini Maleka and Jamal Abdelmaji, will participate in the Olympic Games in Paris as part of the refugee delegation. Tahluini and Jamal contribute a lot to the development of long runs in Israel, we are very proud of them and wish them great success in Paris.”
