Michelle Yeoh has had an amazing career spanning decades. From beginning in Hong Kong action films like Magnificent Warriors (1987) to her breakthrough Hollywood performances in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), her career is still going strong with her roles in franchises like the MCU, Star Trek, and Wicked, and also her Academy Award-winning performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
However, many of her most significant accomplishments have not been on the silver screen. Yoeh has a long history of activism, culminating in her receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024. Her activism extends into sports. In 2023, Michelle Yeoh was elected to become a part of the International Olympics Committee, IOC, which is the organization responsible for organizing the Olympic Games. In this eight-year elected role, Yeoh is able to expand her lifelong mission of honoring the Olympics’ ideals and fighting against injustice.
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Michelle Yeoh’s First Dream Was to Be an Olympian
In the BBC‘s reporting on Michelle Yeoh’s election, they explained Michelle Yeoh’s long-term connection to sports and the Olympics. In a quote from Yeoh, she stated, “I remember when someone asked me, how did you become an actress? I always said, ‘I never dreamt of being an actress, but as a child I always dreamt of being an Olympian.'”
Before her acting career began, Yeoh competed and participated in many sports, including squash, swimming, and diving. She also trained in ballet as well. While the members of the IOC are not competing athletes, the role still ties Yeoh to shaping the Olympic games. As one of the committee’s 107 members, she still remains connected to sports and has fulfilled her Olympian dream behind the scenes rather than competing in the games.
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Michelle Yeoh’s IOC Membership Allows Her to Stand for Refugees
In an interview with Today during the 2024 press tour for Wicked, Yeoh explained her role with the IOC further. For the 2024 Summer Olympics, Yeoh was part of the Olympics Refuge Foundation, ORF, which allows athletes who are refugees of war in their home countries to still compete at the Olympics as part of the Refugee Team. The Refugee Team was first instated in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, and was allowed to compete again in 2020 and 2024. While the Refugee Team has not made their debut at the Winter Olympics yet, they may in the future.
The Refugee Team is meant to be a symbol of hope in a time of crisis. In a quote from Bach on the official Olympics website, he stated:
This will be a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis. It is also a signal to the international community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society.
Yeoh further expanded upon this in an interview with Olympics.com. She stated:
Sports is something that brings people together. And you can see with the Olympics, it crosses borders, it crosses culture, it crosses language. It is a language of love and respect and dignity. With that, we can exercise this goodwill on a much much deeper and meaningful, but so necessary, place. So I hope that they will welcome me into the refugee team and allow me to work together with them and bring this joy and sense of hope to the 110 million refugees around the world.
Yeoh’s role with the ORF allows her to enact this ideal of the connective power of sports throughout the world and expand her work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a Goodwill Ambassador. Her choice to specifically serve with the ORF shows her dedication to the Olympics’ ideals of bringing people together even in times of war and strife.
While the Refugee Team is not competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics Games, Michelle Yeoh has still been working behind the scenes in her role as an IOC member. With many years left in her IOC tenure, Yeoh has the chance to continue her work to support the refugee community and promote equality through sports for everyone.
