There are only two times in my life that I've cried: when my mother left me, and when I received the news that I would be on the first-ever IOC Refugee Olympic Team. When I walked into the Olympic Stadium with my teammates for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016, it was a defining moment for me. One I will never forget. I can still hear the crowd cheering for us and thought of my fellow refugees in Kakuma, and my family. I took a moment to reflect on everything I had gone through to reach this point and the message we needed to send to the watching world. We were ambassadors of hope at Rio 2016, spreading a message that anything is possible. Today, as the IOC Refugee Olympic Team and the Olympic Refuge Foundation are about to receive the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, this message has proved to be true. When I was separated from my mother, I wasn't sure I'd see her again. I wasn't sure she was alive. It was in Rio that the IOC reunited me with my family. As an Olympian, I spoke to my birth mother for the first time since I was 10 years old. This is the power of sport. This is the value of the Olympic Movement.
In Rio, we showed the world that, as refugees, we can do anything. Being a refugee is not the end. For me, with the IOC by my side, it was the start of a new journey.
