News Text: Pedro Só      Photos: Alex FerroMore than two and a half years after they came to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the World Judo Championships, two refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still here, in pursuit of an extraordinary Olympic dream When teams from more than 200 countries march into the Maracanã Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Games on 5 August, Popole Misenga and Yolanda Mabika intend to be among them, walking behind the Olympic flag The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will mount a unique team of refugee athletes which will compete in Rio With no country to call their own, the two Congolese athletes have built a new life in Rio de Janeiro and are training hard to form part of Team Refugee “It is my dream, and the dream of many Africans The IOC is recognising us as human beings and giving us an opportunity I will be competing for all refugees”Popole MisengaAlso read: Refugee working as postwoman in Belgium wins taekwondo place at Rio 2016Last week, at the headquarters of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, the two judokas signed up to the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme As well as receiving support from the IOC, Misenga and Mabika are being helped by the Instituto Reação, a judo school and charity set up by Brazilian Olympic medallist Flávio Canto It has been a long journey from central Africa and from a war that has claimed an estimated 5 4 million lives According to the United Nations, life expectancy in the country, the 11th largest in the world, is only 48 for men and 51 for women Mabika, now 28, cannot hold back the tears when she remembers the brothers and sisters she has not seen since 1998, when she was evacuated from her home town to the country’s capital, Kinshasa It was there, as a child, that she first took up judo Yolande Mabika misses her brothers and sisters: "I don't know if they are alive, if they're well" (Photo: Rio2016/Alex Ferro)“We had to fight for everything For me, judo was a way of defending myself and surviving”Yolande MabikaMisenga’s mother was murdered when he was just six years old The young child wandered for days in the Congolese rainforest before he too was rescued and taken to Kinshasa Like his compatriot, he soon took to judo, a sport which the Congolese government saw as an ideal way of giving some structure to the lives of the country’s countless orphans In 2010, Misenga won a bronze medal at the under-20 African Judo Championship But Misenga and Mabika said training conditions were excessively rigorous, with losing judokas beaten and locked in cells At the 2013 World Judo Championship, Popole and Misenga took the opportunity to begin a better life After escaping from the team hotel, a couple of days later Misenga found herself in the favela community of Cinco Bocas in northern Rio, home to most of the city’s Congolese community of some 900 people She passed a message to Popole, and he too chose not to get on the plane home With the help of Catholic charity Cáritas, the two of them then applied for asylum and refugee status Also read: Refugee to carry Rio 2016 Olympic torchLife in northern Rio has not always been easy for the judokas It has been a story of odd jobs and informal employment, of working in factories and on truck crews, of struggling to make ends meet Misenga and Mabika did not have much time to dedicate to judo, but the two of them soon managed to settle into their new communities Misenga married a Brazilian woman and has a Brazilian son, Elias, 13 months of age “I am a warrior, but I understand that here we are training with friends”Popole MisengaPopole is training hard to make history at this year's Olympic Games (Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)The two athletes are now training three times a week at the Instituto Reação The learning curve has been steep Geraldo Bernardes, the veteran coach of the Brazilian team in four Olympic Games, says that Misenga and Mabika were initially far too aggressive in training “They were used to being punished and mistreated when they lost,” Geraldo explains “I had to tell them that training and fighting are different things ”Misenga told rio2016 com that he had adjusted to his new surrounds: “I have learnt a lot on the technical side I can feel in my body that I have learnt what was missing before in my judo ” Bernardes says the two judokas are rough diamonds and are still making up for the lost time in their training But with 19 Olympic medals in judo, Brazil has a strong tradition in the sport and both athletes are hoping that by refining their skills in the country they will make the cut when when the IOC decides which athletes (from a shortlist of 43) will form part of Team Refugee in June “It’s very different from the judo we learnt in Africa, but I am now used to the Brazilian style”Yolande MabikaIn the meantime, both Misenga and Mabika are enjoying their new lives in Rio The Instituto Reação and the local Estácio de Sá university have given them the opportunity to learn Portuguese, maths and other subjects Neither of the two judokas has any plan to leave the new home town that has given them so much “Brazil is my home I will never forget how the country has received me”Yolande MabikaMisenga and Mabika hope to stay in Brazil long after the Olympic Games (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)“I want to win a medal and inspire refugees from all over the world Afterwards, I want to stay in Rio God has made this a magical place”Popole Misenga