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Guor Marial is man without a passport or country. This is the story of a South Sudanese refugee marathon runner who battled his way literally to London and won his right to compete at the 11th hour. Fleeing for his life from a Sudanese labour camp is what taught him to run. He escaped but not before his jaw was broken by soldiers. So when the IOC suggested he run for Sudan, Marial, who lost 28 members of his family in the civil war, refused. He chose to run as an independent runner under the Olympic flag in London. The 28-year-old reached the Olympic qualification time in October last year and improved his personal best in San Diego, California, last month, finishing in two hours 12 minutes 55 seconds.

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Urige Buta is another remarkable marathoner, who trained running in sewage tunnels. The former Ethiopian refugee spent much of the dark Nordic winter practising in a mile-long service tunnel built for sewage pipes, waiting for the snow to melt. No high-tech equipments or training regimens, but Buta does not complain. He qualified for the Olympics with an impressive two-hour, nine- minute time.

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Sarah Attar became the first female track and field athlete to represent Saudi Arabia at an Olympics when she competed in the 800 metres heats. In Saudi Arabia, women are banned from taking part in sport and the country follows a practice of sending male-only teams to sporting events For Sarah, this meant standing up against long-standing orthodox beliefs, her family and countrymen. Her participation is symbolic and a big catalyst for change for upcoming sportswomen in the Arab world.

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Adrien Niyonshut is the first mountain biker from Rwanda to represent his country at the Olympics. When he is not cycling, he has to deal with crippling headaches and violent memories of the Rwandan genocide in which his brothers died. The small-framed 25-year-old is the east African country's first Olympic mountain biker, honoured with carrying the national flag at the opening ceremony of the London Games.

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The Somali Olympic team in the form of Zamzam Farah in the women’s 400m and Mohamed Hassan in the men’s 1,500m. Utmost adversity, no professional coaches, not even a functioning track to train on. They trained in the streets of Mogadishu, midst fighting and gun fire in the city.

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An eight-month pregnant shooter had the world’s glare on her bulging belly during the 10-metre air rifle event. Malaysia's Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, competed in the event at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, east of the Olympic Park, despite being eight months pregnant.