Yolande Bukasa Mabika (born 8 September 1987) is a Congolese-born Brazilian

judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

who was selected by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) to compete for the

Refugee Olympic Team The Refugee Olympic Team is a group made up of independent Olympic participants who are refugees. In March 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team, as a s ...

at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil. She competed in the women's 70 kg event, losing her first round match against Israeli

Linda Bolder Linda Bolder (Hebrew: לינדה בולדר, born 3 July 1988 in Velserbroek, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born Israeli Olympic judoka. A three-time European age-group judo champion as a junior, two-time Dutch senior women's champion, and silver m ...

Personal life

Mabika was born on 8 September 1987. She is from the

Bukavu Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu pr ...

area of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, an area severely affected by the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

. During the conflict she was separated from her parents and was taken to a children's home in the capital

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

. There she took up judo, a sport the Congolese government advocated for orphans to take as an ideal way to seek some structure. She sought

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

in Brazil after travelling there to compete in the 2013 World Judo Championships along with fellow judoka

Popole Misenga Popole Misenga (born 25 February 1992) is a judoka originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio d ...

. The coaches confiscated their money and passports and left them confined in their hotel rooms. After two days barely eating, Mabika escaped the team hotel and went looking for help on the streets. Two days of wandering later, she found a community of Congolese immigrants in the

Brás de Pina Brás de Pina is a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with ...

neighborhood, and the next day went to the hotel to get Misenga. The pair claimed that their judo coaches deprived them of food and locked them in cages when they did not perform well. The

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

(UNHCR) officially granted her refugee status in September 2014. She lives in various homes in a ''

favela Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...

'' of the

Cordovil Cordovil is a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over ...

neighborhood.

Judo

In 2013, she qualified for the

World Judo Championships The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place) by the International Judo ...

held in Brazil. However, she never competed in the competition, leaving to find help, eventually seeking asylum and remaining in the country. In Brazil she started training at the Instituto Reação, a judo school founded by Olympic bronze medallist

Flávio Canto Flávio Vianna de Ulhôa Canto (born April 16, 1975 in Oxford, England) is a Brazilian judoka who competed in Men's 81 kg Judo. He won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is founder and president of the Instituto Reação, an ...

and now trains under coach Geraldo Bernardes in Rio de Janeiro. Before joining Reação in 2015, Mabika even slept on the street, and worked as a sweeper and at a textile mill. She received support and funding from the IOC's Olympic Solidarity programme. On 3 June 2016 the IOC announced that Mabika would be part of a team of ten athletes selected to compete as part of a

at the

in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She competed in the women's 70 kg event. She lost her first round match against Israeli

on August 10, subjected to a choke hold just over a minute into the bout,.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mabika, Yolande 1987 births Living people People from Bukavu Democratic Republic of the Congo female judoka Expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Judoka at the 2016 Summer Olympics Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics Democratic Republic of the Congo expatriates in Brazil