The Cool Runnings of the refugee crisis: Somalia's bandy ​team at home on ice

Most of Somalia’s bandy team had never seen snow or ice before they arrived in Sweden as refugees in their late teens.

Three years on they are furiously practicing the sport – a version of ice hockey played with a ball – in the hope they will be selected to represent Somaliaat the third bandy world championships, to be held in Russia in February.

The team are based in the small Swedish town of Borlänge, around 200km north of Stockholm, which is home to more than 3,000 Somalis. It’s Cool Runnings 2.0, set to the backdrop of the refugee crisis.

Hans Grandin, who sits on the Somali team’s board, was nearing retirement when he realised he wanted to do something to change the social fabric of his town. “Integration is not, was not, as good as it can be. It takes a long time, especially in Sweden, where people are cold and slow,” he says.

“There was already a refugee football team, and I thought we could do something similar, helping the Somalis get on ice.”

The team’s chairman, Mursal Ismail, a 34-year-old who has lived in Sweden since 2002, said it’s an important way “for Somalis to show themselves doing good things for their host country.”