“We trust each other because unity means strength,” says an old Arabic proverb.

The universal message: together we are strong.

But after years of war and oppression, this seems hard to imagine in Syria at the moment.

More than ten million people are still on the run, scattered around the world as homeless fragments of a broken nation.

According to the motto of this year's Olympic Games “United by emotions”, however, six athletes will be competing side by side under the Syrian banner in Tokyo.

Alexander Davydov

Sports editor.

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But they are not the only participants from this crisis country.

Because nine other Syrian Olympians will also be there, who are not only connected by their origins, but also by a common fate - the loss of their homeland.

They compete as members of the so-called "Refugee Olympic Team", the Olympic refugee team.

So does Aram Mahmoud.

In 2014, the then 17-year-old was one of the best badminton players in Syria.

But the situation in his home country came to a head.

With a heavy heart, he left family and home in 2015: "It was a very difficult decision for me to leave my country," remembers Mahmoud.

“At some point, however, I had to realize that the security situation in my home country barely offered me any chances to achieve my dreams and goals.” Mahmoud embarked on a no less dangerous path in order to find a better perspective for himself.

"My top priority was finally to be safe, I didn't even think about the sport at the time," he says.

The arrival in the Netherlands meant a long-awaited new beginning for the young Syrian.

First steps in the new home

The first steps in a foreign country with a foreign culture were difficult. But Mahmoud does not let himself get down. “My family and friends believe in me, it helps a lot,” he says. “My father, he was my coach in Syria, has been my idol and role model all the time. He told me: Be yourself and fight for every point. ”A piece of advice that Mahmoud does not only apply to sport. Almost every day he speaks on the phone to all those who are so close to him and yet remain in far-away Syria. Even if you keep telling Mahmoud how proud you are of him, the pain of the breakup remains. The grip on racket and shuttlecock makes it more bearable. Altogether about 125 grams - that's the weight of Mahmoud's consolation and hope.

“Badminton helped me find my way around, make friends here, integrate myself, and learn the language more easily,” says Mahmoud.

He had only been in the Netherlands for a few months, when he was already in the training hall of a club, a little later he was already playing against the best in the country.

The ambitious Syrian's talent is undisputed and is promoted in the Netherlands.

And yet Mahmoud's sporting ambitions are thwarted for years.

His biggest opponent is not on the field, but in his documents.

Because of his refugee status, the top athlete will only be able to take part in international competitions again in 2018 and prove how good he really is.

The dream of Olympia

With the “Refugee Olympic Team” he can now even fulfill his dream of participating in the Olympic Games.

In addition to 20 other refugees from a total of ten countries, eight other Syrians also belong to this homeless team.

Even if Mahmoud never met her before the games, he knows their suffering, which is so much like his own.

These men and women come from places that Mahmoud was familiar with from his youth.

Aleppo, Idlib or Damascus.

They too fled the horrors of war and got a new chance in Germany, the Netherlands or Switzerland.

Mahmoud therefore feels a bitter-sweet we-feeling with the expelled compatriots.

“We know what each and every one of us had to go through and suffer,” he says.

Mahmoud, however, also sees himself as part of a much larger community of fate. He wants, he says, to give hope to the countless refugees around the world, regardless of their origin. And at the same time not only attract attention as a homeless athlete: "I am at the games because I am good and I deserve it," he says. "Not just because I'm a refugee who just plays badminton."

The dream of the Olympic Games, which so many nations want to unite through emotions, can finally be fulfilled by Mahmoud in Tokyo. But there is still a longing left. It is the wish to finally arrive at a place that has become so familiar: "After all this, the Netherlands has become my home," says Mahmoud and hopes that one day he will be able to officially represent this country side by side with other Dutch athletes .