Rose Nathike Lokonyen leads the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team. GETTY IMAGES

The International Olympic Committee and financial management firm Deloitte have jointly launched a global media campaign documenting the impact of historic Olympic ‘firsts’. Debuted 100 days before the Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games, 'The First Effect' highlights some of the most trailblazing athletes whose achievements didn't make the podium. 

Among them is Sarah Attar, the first female to represent Saudi Arabia in athletics, making her debut at the 2012 London Olympics. She would place last on the track, but her initiative would change women’s sport in Saudi Arabia. Just a year after her Olympic appearance, the first sports centre for women opened and the Saudi government voted to introduce physical education in all schools for girls. In 2018, the first all-female road race drew 1,500 women.


Saudi women sit in a house in Riyadh as they watch and film Saudi Arabia's Sarah Attar competing in the women's 800m heats. GETTY IMAGES
Saudi women sit in a house in Riyadh as they watch and film Saudi Arabia's Sarah Attar competing in the women's 800m heats. GETTY IMAGES


Joining her is fellow 2012 London Olympian Great Britain’s Nicola Adams. Earning the gold in London made her first ever female Olympic boxing champion and interest in the sport from women and girls in Great Britain, where female professional boxing was made legal only in 1998, would skyrocket. 

Earning their place in Olympic history are para-athletes Natalie Du Toit of South Africa, the first amputee to compete in Olympic swimming; Abdellatif Baka, a visually impaired Paralympian runner from Algeria who won gold in Rio 2016 and holds the distinction of being the first Paralympian to beat the winning time of an Olympian in the same event.


Five-time Paralympic gold medalist Natalie Du Toit dives into the pool at a competition. GETTY IMAGES
Five-time Paralympic gold medalist Natalie Du Toit dives into the pool at a competition. GETTY IMAGES


Track and field athlete Rose Nathike Lokonyen, originally from South Sudan who competed in Rio on the first Refugee Olympic Team and was the team’s flagbearer, is also honoured. Her family fled South Sudan when she was just ten and she was discovered at a refugee camp during tryouts held by the IOC and Tegla Loroupe Foundation. Lokonyen tried out barefoot in the 5000m and won. 

The campaign also showcases other momentous 'firsts' on the Olympic stage, such as the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo being the first to be broadcast live globally and 1900 Olympic Games in Paris was the first to feature female athletes.



In a separate video release, Pia Devitre, Deloitte Globals' Partnerships Managing Director, talks about the excitement of witnessing future 'firsts'.

"The Olympic and Paralympic Games always provide an opportunity for a set of ‘firsts’. Paris 2024 will be no exception, with the first time that the Opening Ceremony will happen outside a stadium, and the first time that we will see equal numbers of male and female athletes participating. The anticipation of the ‘firsts’ to come – the human ambition and what the athletes themselves might deliver for the first time. This is what we are excited to see and feel the impact of." Devitre said.