Olympic Refugee Team Teaching Tools

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, a refugee team competed for the first time in Olympic history.

These videos can bring this inspiring story to life in your classroom.

From A1+ This video is a good introduction since the only mention of the team being refugees is the first screen – if you start it a couple of seconds in, pupils will be able to discover athletes running, swimming, doing judo, etc. There is no speech, so they can concentrate on the images. One of the last has an athlete looking at the Olympic symbol, so they should be able to connect the images to the Olympics. Then either go back to the first screen, or simply tell them this is a refugee team and ask them to imagine what that means.

From A2+ This video is profile of 18-year-old swimmer Yusra Mardini from Syria, who had to use her swimming skills when she fled the war in her country.

Although English isn’t her first language, she speaks well and is clear. The images of Yusra enjoying leisure time with her swimming club mates, and training, are heartwarmingly normal. Depending on the level, you can hide the English subtitles, or let pupils see them.
You can find the script of the video here.

In September 2016, Yusra was named a UN Goodwill Ambassador. The UN released this animated video of her story. It is usable from A2.