Izuchukwu OkosiKenya’s two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge is to mentor the U20 World Athletics Refugee Team (ART), using his great experience in the sport to educate and inspire upcoming athletes.
Kipchoge will motivate the team members by sharing his knowledge and experience in the sport, while also encouraging them to pursue their education and read books, which is one of his own passions.
Committed to helping the underprivileged, the former world record-holder will also share life skills as part of the role, which he will hold through to next year’s World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 2024.
Confirmation of Kipchoge’s mentorship, which will begin in January, coincides with the announcement of the Multistakeholder Pledge on Sport for Inclusion and Protection of Refugees, a commitment signed by more than 100 organisations represented at the Global Refugee Forum 2023, which gets underway today (13th December 2023) in Geneva.
As one of the signatories, and as part of the Sport for Refugee Coalition which it joined earlier this year, World Athletics reaffirmed its commitment to use sport to help improve the lives of stateless people around the world.
Held every four years, the Global Refugee Forum is the world’s largest international gathering for refugees.
It is designed to support the practical implementation of the objectives set out in the Global Compact on Refugees: ease pressures on host countries, enhance refugee self-reliance, increase access to third-country solutions and improve conditions in countries of origin.
World Athletics’ pledge outlines the role that sport can play in improving the lives of refugees, including through sport programming, policy change, skill development, and communication and advocacy efforts.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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