IOC President Thomas Bach was accompanied by two members of the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - boxer Eldric Sella and cyclist Masomah Ali Zada - in receiving the award at the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo.

The IOC's Spanish vice-president Juan Antonio Samaranch and Spanish Olympic Committee leader Alejandro Blanco accompanied Bach during his time in Oviedo.

Sella was joined by the ORF's Game Connect programme manager Lydia Murungi in visiting a training centre in Gijón.

He was also joined by Ali Zada, Bach and Blanco at an event sharing experiences with local schoolchildren.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were joined by Princess Leonor of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain as representatives of the Spanish Royal Family at the awards ceremony.

The Princess of Asturias Award for Sports was first awarded in 1987, as part of a wider series of prizes established in 1981 to honour individuals or organisations for notable achievements in the sciences, humanities and public affairs.

The late former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and current IOC members Sebastian Coe, Sergey Bubka, Yelena Isinbayeva and Pau Gasol are among the former winners.

So too is disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, in 2000, before he was stripped of his Tour de France titles.

The jury for the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports was chaired by Spain's two-time marathon world champion Abel Antón.

Bach expressed his pride at the ORF and Refugee Olympic Team receiving the award.

"We are very honoured and humbled to have received the Princess of Asturias Award for Sport tonight in this impressive, traditional ceremony," the German official said.

"When we saw the refugee crisis unfolding in 2015, I thought there must be many young athletes who are dreaming the Olympic dream and who are about to lose their dream.

"We wanted to help them to make their dreams become a reality.

"And this is why the IOC created the Refugee Olympic Team.

"These athletes had no flag, no anthem and no home anymore.

"We gave them the Olympic anthem, the Olympic flag and a home in the Olympic Village.

"By doing so, we showed the world that refugees are an enrichment to society and sent a strong message of hope to the world.

"After the success of the first-ever IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, we wanted to strengthen our assistance for all the refugees, not just for the elite athletes.

"This is why we created the Olympic Refuge Foundation, which runs programmes providing access to sport to young displaced people and refugees in their host communities across the world, with the goal of reaching one million of them by 2024."

King Felipe VI commended the ORF and Refugee Olympic Team for their work.

"The Olympic Refuge Foundation and the Refugee Olympic Team remind us that sport, elite competition and the Olympic Movement also serve to remember, reflect and alleviate - as far as possible - the harsh reality that so many people in the world live," he said.

Princess Leonor described the organisation's work as a "great initiative".

After its debut at Rio 2016 with 10 athletes, the Refugee Olympic Team expanded to 29 competitors at Tokyo 2020 and is set to feature again at Paris 2024, with 47 athletes awarded scholarships to assist with their training.

The IOC says that more than 200,000 young people have benefited from the ORF's 13 programmes conducted in seven countries since its launch in 2017.