For those without a home, the Refugee Team is an opportunity to win Olympic glory The Tokyo 2020 Games will see 29 displaced athletes living in 14 countries around the world compete as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. Reuters The Tokyo 2020 Games will see 29 displaced athletes living in 14 countries around the world compete as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. The squad arrives in Japan on Wednesday. Here is a look at the history of the team, its debut at the 2016 Games, its growing place in the Olympic movement and the path towards Tokyo 2020: Creation Marathon runner Guor Marial, a refugee living in the United States, competed at London 2012 as an independent athlete, having made the qualifying time. He had escaped Sudan, was not a US national and his newly-independent South Sudan homeland did not yet have an Olympic committee.