Wenyen Gabriel builds basketball courts in South Sudan; to deploy academies in all 10 states.

Basketball star Wenyen Gabriel building hoop dreams for refugees and South Sudan

The Paris 2024 Olympian, NBA and Bundesliga star shares his vision for South Sudan’s future with Olympics.com and describes how basketball can help change the narrative around what it means to be a refugee.

For 25 years, Wenyen Gabriel could not step foot in his home country, South Sudan.

With the Second Sudanese Civil War heading into its 15th year in 1997, the future Olympic basketball star left the country with his parents and three siblings two weeks after he was born. They first lived in a refugee camp in Cairo, Egypt and later relocated to the United States.

Almost 10,000 kilometres separated Gabriel from his homeland as a child, but despite this distance and no memories of living there, he stayed connected to the East African country through the stories his parents would tell him.

“Growing up in America as a refugee, I was always curious about where I came from . My parents would share stories, and I would ask questions about back home,” Gabriel said.

“It was always kind of unsafe to go back at the time because the war was still current, but I would go to school. I would study. I would try to learn more, and I always wanted to know what I could do to try to help build the country up .”

Gabriel fulfilled that promise in the years to come, first on the shiny basketball courts of an Olympic host city in 2028 and later on the sun-drenched courts he helped to build in the cities and refugee camps of South Sudan.

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South Sudan’s flag at Paris 2024: “It felt like a symbol of freedom”

Gabriel discovered a love for basketball growing up in the United States. He dedicated himself to the sport and honed his skills to become a sought-after player with tenure in various NBA and European teams. As of the 2025-26 season, he plays as a centre for Bayern Munich.

When Gabriel made his first trip back home to South Sudan in 2022, it was also the first time he tried on the country’s basketball jersey.

Playing on the national team at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup , he helped South Sudan place first among all African countries and thus secure a historic qualification to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games .

“Being able to even hold the flag during the Olympics was such a blessing to me because it felt like a symbol of freedom . It felt like a symbol of strength, a symbol of dignity, and a symbol of happiness,” Gabriel said of the team’s three-game run at the Olympics, including a 90-79 win over Puerto Rico.

“Basketball has really uplifted our country since then,” he continued. “It’s brought a lot of joy and a lot of hope to our people, so I think basketball is a big blessing to South Sudan. And I think this is a country where we could become the powerhouse of Africa, and we have a lot of potential.”

South Sudan’s Wenyen Gabriel: “Being a refugee should never be the end of your story”

Wenyen Gabriel and the South Sudan basketball team marked a historic milestone when they competed on the Olympic courts at Paris 2024. Once a refugee, now an Olympian and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Gabriel is building basketball courts in his homeland to bring hope and a brighter future through sport.

Basketball courts and academies for South Sudan’s future stars

Keeping to his childhood promise of building the country up, Gabriel has continued to return to South Sudan since Paris 2024. It was not the international spotlight and headlines that he brought to his homeland however, but something even more tangible - basketball courts.

The 29-year-old set the first court up in the nation’s capital Juba and the second in Doro refugee camp in Maban Country, home to more than 100,000 people.

Gabriel, now also a UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador , does not plan to stop there. He is aiming to build basketball courts in all of the country’s 10 states and ultimately set up academies to foster the next generation of South Sudanese players.

But making the South Sudanese internationally competitive in the sport is only part of the goal.

Even if the vast majority of the kids who take up basketball in South Sudan do not reach the same career heights as Gabriel, the Paris 2024 Olympian is confident that the broader effect would be worth the effort.

“Sports could be the vehicle to help people get to school. It could be the vehicle for people to share their voices . It could be a vehicle to bring visibility,” Gabriel said. “It does so many different things for the community, and that’s why I wanted to bring sports to all over South Sudan.”

South Sudan made a historic debut appearance at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Changing the narrative on refugee status

Growing up as a refugee, Gabriel’s quest for success – both individually and for his country – has been as much about winning medals as it was about changing the narrative on what it means to be a displaced person.

His journey to Paris 2024 defied the odds and the takeaway was clear.

“It shows that everyone that was a refugee that you too can have a chance to be successful,” Gabriel said.

“My message to the refugees and all the people around the world is that becoming a refugee is not the end of your story . So to continue to hope, to continue to fight, and continue to try to do this together.”

This is a message that Gabriel shares with the Refugee Olympic Team athletes. The team made its first appearance at Rio 2016 and now it is the turn of the Youth Olympic Games to mark the same milestone with the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team set to compete at Dakar 2026 starting on 31 October.

For Gabriel, who has made fighting for refugees a life mission, it is an occasion to celebrate.

“I think it’s so important for refugees to have the opportunity to compete in sport on the same level and playing field as everyone around the world," the South Sudanese basketball player said. “It gives them a chance to have dignity . It gives them a chance to hope and a chance to showcase the strength they’ve had after all the adversity they’ve been through.”

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Wenyen GABRIEL SSD · Basketball South Sudan

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