British-resident weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II, originally from Cameroon has talked to the BBC about how he came to the UK and his plans to compete at the 2020 Olympics.
Tchatchet has become a regular feature at local and national-level competitions in the UK, putting up some impressive lifts. He recently went 160/200 as a -102 lifter, breaking British records:
In the BBC article, he is quoted talking about how he fled the Cameroon team base at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, afraid to return to his homeland. He subsequently ended up sleeping rough, before eventually he was granted asylum and residency. He is now training as a mental health nurse.
Tchatchet hopes to represent the refugee team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This was created for the 2020 Games to enable representation from athletes who have fled their birth countries but are not yet citizens of another. It is likely that places for the refugee team will be allocated by the Trilateral Commission (see our Olympic qualification guide). To be eligible for such a place, Tchatchet will need to compete in at least two international competitions during the qualification process, at least one of which must be silver level.