LONDON, England — They are the first nation listed at the London World Championships, but not many people know of them.

Still, the five-member Athletes Refugee Team is hoping to leave their mark at the end of the London show, which is a celebration and farewell for track and field’s biggest star, Jamaican Usain Bolt.

Ladislav Demko, the assistant team manager, is optimistic they will do more than that and earn podium finishes.

“We are here to represent the world in all aspects and make sure that countries where people have to flee, the message is sent that anything is possible. We believe that those athletes can make the differences in people’s lives,” Demko told the Jamaica Observer.

Under international law, a refugee is a person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence and has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.

The Refugee Team comprises three athletes from South Sudan, one from Somalia, and one from Ethiopia. The Sudanese women in the team are Rose Nathika Lokonyen (800m) and Anjelina Nadai Lohalith (1500m). Dominic Lokinyoma Lobalu, who will be contesting the 1500m, is also from South Sudan. Ethiopia’s Kadar Omar Abdullah is a 5,000m runner and Ahmed Bashir Farah is 800m runner from Somalia. All now living in Kenya.

“We want to make sure that people around the world understand that a refugee is not just a person who has fled a country and is left behind. We want to make sure that every single refugee is represented by the refugee athletes and those people spread the message of the peace at these championships by the Refugee Team,” said Demko.

Demko, who was born in Slovakia and grew up in the United States of America, is familiar with Jamaica, having visited the island in 1999, and reminisced about the Blue Mountain Peak and its world famous coffee.

The former triathlete strongly believes his team can medal against all odds.

“We have been training very hard in Kenya. Our athletes push the limit like any other team. We have athletes that were in Rio and they are working much harder. So we are counting on the podiums and finals,” said a confident Demko.

The Athletes Refugee Team was formed in 2015. In 2016 they participated at the Rio Olympics under the name the Refugee Olympic Team. Initially they were labelled “Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes”, with the IOC country code ROA, but this was updated to Refugee Olympic Team with the country code ROT.

— Howard Walker