They compete under the same flag but speak different languages and come from different parts of the world. After fleeing war and persecution at home, 36 athletes from 11 countries will compete in the Paris Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

The team was created for the Rio Olympics in 2016 as a symbol of hope and to call attention to the plight of refugees worldwide.

In Paris, the refugee athletes will take the stage at a time of record global migration, with hundreds of millions of people — many of them displaced from their homes — working to reinvent themselves just as these athletes have.

The record migration comes alongside a rise in far-right populism across much of the world, with officials and parties in many countries promising to clamp down on immigration and asylum.

At the Games, athletes will compete in a host country where the anti-immigration far-right party saw a surge of voter support in parliamentary elections, but was beaten back by a coalition of the French left and failed to win a majority.

The refugee athletes will compete in 12 sports, but for many, their journey to Paris is already a victory in itself.

Fernando Dayan Jorge spent his childhood flying past rickety fishing boats and colonial houses in the bay next to his home in Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Since he began practicing there with his father when he was 11, he said it feels as if he’s lived a thousand lifetimes.

The 25-year-old canoeist was a two-time Olympian for Cuba’s national team in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Then, a gold medalist. A deserter of the Cuban team. A migrant. A maintenance worker. And a refugee.

Now, he continues to rocket along on his narrow red-and-white canoe, this time flying past suburban homes in the canals winding through Cape Coral, Florida.

Kneeling on his boat, his oar slices through the air as his coach chants “very good work, very good work” from a boat next to him.

Jorge’s eyes are fixed ahead, throwing all his force into his third Olympics.

“After having written off the 2024 Paris Olympics, it’s a massive opportunity,” he said. “There are so many Cubans that come to this country and lose this dream of competing once again, simply because they don’t know how to get back to this place.”

Jorge was at the top of his career, having won gold in Tokyo for the 1,000-meter canoe sprint, when he took a daunting step in March 2021. While training in Mexico, Jorge defected, joining a growing number of Cuban athletes in deserting their country amid an ongoing migratory flight.

Some hope to make more money than they can in the communist-run island. Others, like Jorge, say they left because of political differences over how the government treats citizens and athletes.