Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu

He lost both of his parents at age 9 due to the Second Sudanese Civil War, a conflict which lasted from 1983 to 2005 and devastated Sudan.

The political unrest caused him and his four sisters to flee their village in Chukudum to neighbouring Kenya.

Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu (born 16 August 1998) is a South Sudanese middle and long-distance runner.

He currently lives and trains in Switzerland and competes for On Running.

Lobalu left South Sudan when he was 8 and took refuge in Kenya.

He took up running at the age of 15, and trained as part of the Athlete Refugee Team.

He competed for the team in the 1500 metres at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.

Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu was born on 16 August 1998 in Chukudum, a small and remote village located in the southeast corner of Sudan (present-day South Sudan), only 25 kilometers away from to border of Kenya and Uganda.

He is from the Didinga tribe.

He spent the next 10 years staying at an orphanage—separated from his sisters—for a short period of time in mid-2007 before crossing over into a town outside of Nairobi with the assistance of an Italian non-governmental organization.

There, he went to school and played football.

But, he transitioned to running at age 15 because of its individual nature.

He finished in 11th place.

Altogether, Lobalu's time with the Athlete Refugee Team consisted of only a handful of events.

She and World Athletics formed the programme in 2014 as an initiative to provide support to the growing number of refugees in camps throughout the globe.

Aspiring runners develop their athletic skills as well as engage in prestigious high level competitions, ranging from the Olympics to the World Championships.

Lobalu viewed running as a way to attain a better life and trained under her for three years in Ngong, Kenya.

He received an offer in September 2016 from an athletics training camp associated with the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation.

Tegla Loroupe, a famous Kenyan long-distance runner, noticed his skills and recruited him to be a member of the Athlete Refugee Team (ART).

Lobalu's debut at the 2017 World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas on 5 April marked the beginning of his professional career.

He and his teammates did the 4 x 800 metres relay and came in seventh place.

Just shy of his 19th birthday, he went to the 2017 World Championships in London, United Kingdom on 10 August.

He concluded the second heat of 1500 metres without advancing forward to the final rounds.

After, he increased his distance to the 5000 metres at the 2018 African Championships in Asaba, Nigeria on 5 August.

In May 2019, he competed in the Geneva Marathon and decided to permanently settle in Switzerland.

In 2022, he set South Sudanese national records in the 1500 metres, 3000 metres, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres.

He won the 3000 m at the BAUHAUS-galan in Stockholm, Sweden setting a world leading time of 7:29.48.

It ended unexpectedly on 11 May 2019 at the Harmony Geneva Marathon for UNICEF.

He travelled from Kenya to run in the 10 kilometres.

Following his win, he decided to leave the Athlete Refugee Team unannounced and snuck out of the team's hotel room.

He was supposed to return to Kenya the day after the marathon, however, he adamantly chose to remain in Switzerland no matter the consequences.

As a result, he changed the course of his career and drastically crushed his chances of being selected for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Prior to his abrupt departure, he questioned his managers about the prize money for the Geneva Marathon but they informed him that there was no prize money.

He thought that their responses to him were evasive and it led him to believe that they were hiding something.

According to Lobalu, the managers' perception of the refugees was that they "should accept whatever they had, whether there was prize money or not".

He frowned upon this idea.

His fellow athletes shared similar sentiments concerning "rising tensions over their training" and cited "dissatisfaction with a system that, to them, appeared to deny them opportunities to create lives outside the program" as contributing factors to their defection.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) delivered a ruling in July 2021 that disallowed Lobalu and Gai John Nyang—another athlete who absconded while in Mainz, Germany—from being on the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT).

The two organisations feared that more of the refugees may be encouraged to imitate the rogue actions of Lobalu and Nyang.

Gatkuoth Puok Thiep, a South Sudanese runner wanting to hastily exit the Athlete Refugee Team in the same manner, accompanied Lobalu as they wandered the streets of Geneva without any money or local contacts.