A Refugee Olympic Team competed for the first time at Rio 2016, with ten athletes, hailing from Ethiopia, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, having the honour of competing alongside 11,000 fellow athletes in Brazil.

It has already been announced that a Refugee Olympic Team will take part in Tokyo 2020, with the athletes making up the team being announced in 2021 following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics by 12 months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yiech Pur Biel was a member of the refugee team at Rio 2016, competing in the men's 800 metres.

Biel fled from conflict in South Sudan in 2005, ending up at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

After impressing in athletics trials he moved to Nairobi where he started training, before being selected to be a part of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team.

Biel described the Opening Ceremony at Rio 2016 as an "emotional experience" and said he is preparing hard as he hopes to be selected for the team again at Tokyo 2020.

"Due to coronavirus, things aren’t going the way they were, but we can just work hard to be even better prepared for 2021," said Biel.

"I’m hoping to make it on to the Refugee Olympic Team again. 

"Young people are increasingly fleeing from their countries, so we must continue with the same message, and we want to be better as a team than we were in 2016. 

"We can really do something in Tokyo."

On International Refugee Day, Biel also had a message to refugees around the world.

"My message is that nothing should make you feel ashamed to be a refugee," he said.

"The only response is to work hard, go to school, prepare yourself and try to change your life through your skills or your passions, and to find any way to become a better person. 

"Don’t allow the past to take you back to problems. Show people that we need time to make changes. 

"People should know that the UN is working to make refugees safe. We need to say thank you on this day to those who are helping refugees."

Biel is one of 49 Refugee Athlete Scholarship holders who are supported by the International Olympic Committee and who are training with the aim of being selected for the Tokyo 2020 Refugee Olympic Team.

The athletes come from 18 host countries and represent 11 sports - athletics, wresting, judo, taekwondo, cycling, swimming, badminton, boxing, shooting, karate and weightlifting.

The shooters include three athletes being mentored by Rio 2016 Olympic champion Niccolo Campriani.

Campriani, a three-time shooting gold medallist from Italy, decided he wanted a fresh challenge after Rio 2016 and decided to take under his wing some refugee shooters based near his home in Lausanne in Switzerland.

His ambitious target was to mentor them with the aim of helping them to achieve the minimum qualification score, so that they could be eligible to compete in the 10 metre air rifle at Tokyo 2020.

The shooters he is working with are Khaoula, Mahdi and Luna, originally from Palestine, Afghanistan and Eritrea respectively.

The trio's progress is being documented as part of a series on the Olympic Channel called Taking Refuge.

The project started 500 days before Tokyo 2020 was due to get underway, with the postponement of the Games by 12 months giving Campriani further time to work with his charges.

"Working with them has rekindled my love of the sport," said Campriani.

"I am looking forward to returning to training them normally once the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, and guiding them towards Tokyo."