In the lead-up to World Refugee Day on 20 June, members of the Refugee Olympic Team will be sharing their stories in a series of features as they prepare for the Games in Tokyo. The series continues with marathon runner Tachlowini Gabriyesos.
Tachlowini Gabriyesos, newly – very newly – selected for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Games, is a restless presence on screen as our Zoom call starts.
The 23-year-old marathon runner from Eritrea, now based in Israel, seems barely able to remain in his chair, his eyes flashing, his teeth dazzling in harmony with his bright white wireless earbuds and polo shirt. Excited.
“Congratulations, Tachlowini. When did you get the good news?”
“Ten minutes! Ten minutes ago.”
“Congratulations. And what are you hopes for Tokyo now?”
“Wow, wow, wow …Tokyo!” he replies. “I am working very, very hard and I have expectation for myself to be a lot better than I am now.
“Now my target is to be in my best shape in Tokyo. I don’t know if it will be possible but I would like to go to altitude to train before the Olympics and to do the best I can, not just to be in Tokyo but to do a really good competition – to make history for refugees by making a very good competition in the marathon.”
On 14 March, Gabriyesos became the first refugee athlete to break an Olympic qualifying mark as he comfortably surpassed the time of 2:11:30 by running 2:10:55 at the Hahula Galilee Marathon in only his second race at the distance.
Asked if he was therefore confident about being named for Tokyo, he responds, vehemently, in the negative. Which, given the difficulties he has faced in realising a strong childhood ambition to become a runner, is hardly surprising.
“Of course, I was really scared in the last few weeks,” he says. “Also, they told us it’s not just the results, it’s where you come from and what is your story and which continent you are living in and which is your country of origin. I have been sweating all day until I heard it was official!”
Tachlowini Gabriyesos (© Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed)
While he has been established in Israel since he was 12, after fleeing his war-torn native land and journeying through Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt before crossing the Sinai desert on foot, his experience of competing internationally has been vexed by visa difficulties.
While he was able to compete for the World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team (ART) over 5000m at the…
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