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Team Refugee Ready for Rio Olympics (21 photos)

Last year, the United Nations estimated there were more than 21 million refugees scattered across the globe—a level unseen since World War II. As the 2016 Olympic games approached, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach saw an opportunity to focus global attention on the crisis, and to give some of the athletes among this huge stateless population a chance to compete on the world stage. The IOC selected a group of 10 refugee athletes from South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Ethiopia to compete for the newly-formed Refugee Olympic Team. During the Opening Ceremony, the team will march into the stadium carrying the Olympic flag.