In “The International ... Rio.” (L 5-6) UNIQUE means

Refugee judokas searching for peace while fighting for their Olympic dream in Rio 

        More than two and a half years after they came to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the World Judo Championships, two refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still here, in pursuit of an extraordinary Olympic dream. When teams from more than 200 countries march into the Maracanã Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Games on 5 August, Popole Misenga and Yolanda Mabika intend to be among them, walking behind the Olympic flag. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will mount a unique team of refugee athletes which will compete in Rio. It has been a long journey from central Africa and from a war that has claimed an estimated 5.4 million lives. Mabika, now 28, cannot hold back the tears when she remembers the brothers and sisters she has not seen since 1998, when she was evacuated from her home town to the country’s capital, Kinshasa. It was there, as a child, that she first took up judo. Misenga’s mother was murdered when he was just six years old. The young child wandered for days in the Congolese rainforest before he too was rescued and taken to Kinshasa. Like his compatriot, he soon took to judo, a sport which the Congolese government saw as an ideal way of giving some structure to the lives of the country’s countless orphans. In 2010, Misenga won a bronze medal at the under-20 African Judo Championship. But Misenga and Mabika said training conditions were excessively rigorous, with losing judokas beaten and locked in cells. At the 2013 World Judo Championship, Misenga took the opportunity to begin a better life. After escaping from the team hotel, a couple of days later Misenga found himself in the favela community of Cinco Bocas in northern Rio, home to most of the city’s Congolese community of some 900 people. He sent Mabika a message and she also decided to stay. Life in northern Rio has not always been easy for the judokas. It has been a story of odd jobs and informal employment.The two athletes are now training three times a week at the Instituto Reação. The learning curve has been steep. Geraldo Bernardes, the veteran coach of the Brazilian team in four Olympic Games, says that Misenga and Mabika were initially far too aggressive in training. “They were used to being punished and mistreated when they lost,” Geraldo explains. “I had to tell them that training and fighting are different things.”

        Misenga told rio2016.com that he had adjusted to his new surrounds: “I have learnt a lot on the technical side. I can feel in my body that I have learnt what was missing before in my judo.” Their coach says the two judokas are rough diamonds and are still making up for the lost time in their training. Brazil has a strong tradition in the sport and both athletes are hoping that by refining their skills in the country they will make the cut when the IOC decides which athletes (from a shortlist of 43) will form part of Team Refugee in June. In the meantime, both Misenga and Mabika are enjoying their new lives in Rio. The Instituto Reação and the local Estácio de Sá university have given them the opportunity to learn Portuguese, maths and other subjects. Neither of the two judokas has any plan to leave the new home town that has given them so much.

(Available in: http://www.rio2016.com. Adapted.)