| Rwanda at the 2019 Military World Games | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IOC code | RWA |
| in Wuhan, China 18 October 2019 – 27 October 2019 | |
| Medals Ranked 56th |
|
Rwanda competed at the 2019 Military World Games held in Wuhan, China from 18 to 27 October 2019. In total, athletes representing Rwanda won one bronze medal and the country finished in 56th place in the medal table.
| Medals by sport | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sport |  |  |  | Total |
| Athletics | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Medal | Name | Sport | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | John Hakizimana | Athletics | Men's marathon |
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley, where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. One of the smallest countries on the African mainland, its capital city is Kigali. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is highly elevated, giving it the soubriquet "land of thousand hills", with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. Rwanda has a population of over 12.6 million living on 26,338 km2 of land, and is the most densely populated mainland African country.
Kigali is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. The city has been Rwanda's economic, cultural, and transport hub since it became the capital following independence from Belgian rule in 1962.
Roméo Antonius Dallaire is a Canadian humanitarian, author, and retired senator and Land Force Command lieutenant-general. Dallaire served as force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994, and attempted to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi people and Hutu moderates.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winning the Rwandan Civil War in 1994.
The Rwanda Defence Force is the national army of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), but following the stopping of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis, the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) created a new organization and named it Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Later, it was renamed to its current name.
Mbaye Diagne was a Senegalese military officer who served in Rwanda as a United Nations military observer from 1993 to 1994. During the Rwandan genocide he undertook many missions on his own initiative to save the lives of civilians.
Rwanda has competed in eight Summer Games. They have never competed in the Winter Olympic Games.
Rwanda sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country was represented by a single athlete. Jean de Dieu Nkundabera, who won a bronze medal in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, competed in the 800 metre wheelchair sprint.
Rwanda made its Commonwealth Games debut at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, from October 3 to October 14, 2010. Rwanda was admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations in November 2009, becoming the second member state of the Commonwealth that has no colonial or constitutional links with the United Kingdom.
Rwanda competed in the Commonwealth Games for the first time at the 2010 Games in Delhi, India.
Track and field is one of the sports at the quadrennial Military World Games competition. Track and field competitions have been held at every one of the eleven editions of the Military World Games, which was inaugurated in 1995.
Rwanda competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. The team included one man and one woman. Competitors from Rwanda won one bronze medal to finish 73rd in the medal table.
Rwanda competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at London marked its eighth appearance in the Summer Olympics since its début at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The delegation included seven competitors which included three track and field athletes; Robert Kajuga, Jean Pierre Mvuyekure and Claudette Mukasakindi. The other people that represented the country were cross-country cyclist Adrien Niyonshuti, judoka Fred Yannick Uwase, swimmers Jackson Niyomugabo and Alphonsine Agahozo. The track and field athletes qualified for the Games by meeting qualification standards while the remaining four made the Olympics through wildcard places. Niyonshuti was the flag bearer for both the opening and closing ceremonies. No athletes were able to achieve medals at the London Olympic Games.
Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics will be held during the last ten days of the Games. They were due to be held from 31 July – 9 August 2020, at the Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games have been postponed with the track and field events set for 30 July – 8 August 2021. The sport of athletics at these Games is split into three distinct sets of events: track and field events, road running events, and racewalking events. A total of 48 events will be held, one more than in 2016, with the addition of a mixed relay event.
Rwanda competed at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, in Nanjing, China from 16 August to 28 August 2014.
The Rwandan Air Force is an air branch of the Rwandan Defence Forces.
The Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal is, along with the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal and the United Nations Medal, one of three awards of the United Nations, given to persons who have participated in the international humanitarian, military or police UN Mission. It was founded on 8 May 2014 by the United Nations Security Council and is named after Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese Captain and Military Observer of the United Nations in Rwanda, who was killed in action in Rwanda on 31 May 1994. The medal was given for the first time in 2019, to Private Chancy Chitete, from the Malawian contingent of MONUSCO, killed during fighting against the Allied Democratic Forces.
Rwanda competed at the 2019 African Games held from 19 to 31 August 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. In total, athletes representing Rwanda won three bronze medals and the country finished in 37th place in the medal table.
The 2019 Military World Games, officially known as the 7th CISM Military World Games and commonly known as Wuhan 2019, was held from October 18–27, 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China.
John Hakizimana is a Rwandan long-distance runner. In 2018, he competed in the men's half marathon at the 2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships held in Valencia, Spain. He finished in 34th place.