Only twice in my life I cried: when I said goodbye to my mother and when I found out that I would be in the first IOC Olympic team among refugees. When I entered the stadium with my fellow athletes for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, it was a defining moment for me that I will never forget.

I still remember the crowds cheering us on and I think of my fellow refugees in Kakuma and my family. I took some time to think about everything I had to go through to get to this point and what we needed to send to the world watching me. We were Ambassadors of Hope in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, spreading the message that anything is possible.

In 2005, when I was 10 years old, government troops came to my village at the height of the conflict in South Sudan. This event changed my life, but I was one of the lucky ones. I ran away with my mom and brother. We spent three days in the wild eating nothing but fruit until the UN rescued us and took refuge in Kenya. It was there that I started running and discovered for the first time the power of sport to bring people together.

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, this was the start of a new path. After I returned from the 800m race in Rio, the IOC helped me enroll as a student at Iowa Central Community College in the USA. I then became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and was appointed by the IOC to head the Tokyo Refugee Olympic Team. In this way, I was able to show more people than ever before that there is no shame in being a refugee. That everything is possible.

Now, as a member of the ILO and board of the Refugee Olympic Fund, the ILO continues to strengthen my efforts to raise awareness of the world’s conflicts by providing me with a vital platform to speak on behalf of and with other refugees.

On behalf of myself and all refugees around the world, I thank the Princess of Asturias Foundation for this historic recognition. There is no better means than sport to bring people together. You never know what tomorrow holds. Everyone can become a refugee, but everyone can also dream and make their dreams come true.

* Mr. Yates Poor Beel is the first refugee to be elected a member of the IOC and a member of the IOC’s first Olympic Refugee Team. Last Friday in Oviedo, Spain, the Refugee Olympic Foundation and the International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team were honored with the 2022 Princess of Asturias Sports Award.