Tegla Loroupe, the Chef de Mission for the Olympic Refugee Team, says athletes who have decided to stay in Europe rather than return to the training camp in Kenya ‘cannot’ compete in Tokyo this year.
However the athletes from South Sudan are still hopeful a solution can be found to enable them to run at the delayed Games.
Former world marathon record holder Loroupe is also concerned about the image of the project after the athletes decided to start afresh in Europe.
Kenya’s Loroupe will again take charge of the refugee team made up of competitors from around the globe set to take part in various sports in Tokyo after she led a similar team at the 2016 Games.
“The athletes who stayed in Europe, we feel so bad,” Loroupe told BBC Sport Africa.
“They cannot go [to Tokyo2020] because if you give them the opportunity to run in the Olympics, then you are encouraging more people to do wrong things.”
“What they did has blocked other athletes from getting visas, because now nobody trusts the other refugees. They do not see that they leave a very bad image. They kill the trust.”
At the Rio Olympics the refugee team consisted of 10 athletes (five originally from South Sudan, one from Ethiopia and two each from DR Congo and Syria) competing in athletics, judo and swimming.
Loroupe says endorsing athletes who have left Kenya for Europe by selecting them the refugee team going to Tokyo could also damage the future of the project, especially for African competitors.
“We could lose some of the partners, which is not good for the project and the upcoming athletes,” she pointed out.
“The government and embassies are also partners, it’s like you are just playing around with the support of the nation.”
Sponsors of the refugee team project include the International Olympic Committee, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) and the governments of France, Kenya and Qatar.
