It would be entirely separate from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Refugee Team, whose sole focus is the Olympic Games, and would offer athletes the chance to compete internationally, as well as locally and nationally, before they gain full refugee status.

That "limbo" period between arriving in a new country and gaining the United Nations High Commission for Refugees status required by the IOC Team can be soul-destroying and can lead to weightlifting refugees leaving the sport for good, said Cyrille Tchatchet, who has first-hand experience.

Tchatchet, who lifts for Britain and finished top of the 96 kilograms B Group with career-high numbers at the IWF World Championships in Bogotá, Colombia on Monday, competed in Tokyo for the IOC Refugee Team.

But there was a four-year gap between the time when, having stayed in Britain after competing for Cameroon at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he applied for asylum and finally got his UK passport.

"I never met weightlifters from other countries in all that time," he said.

There are tens of millions of displaced people worldwide, and Tchatchet said the typical waiting time for UNHCR status would be three to five years involving, as in his case, a lot of court appearances.

He was unable to leave the country or compete in international events during that time and said: "I’m not going to name names, but I know weightlifters who went to other countries to seek asylum who had no support and left the sport.

"I don’t know of one who came back to weightlifting later.

"The single most important thing is grassroots support.

"The IWF needs to act fast - helping weightlifters as soon as they arrive in a new country is essential, and that will cost money.

"If you gave refugees $500 a month, say, they would really work for it, they probably wouldn’t be able to get a job so they would train really hard, and they would earn their place in any team on merit."

Funding would not necessarily all have to come from the IWF.

Two Iranian women fled to Germany this year, Parisa Jahanfekrian and Yekta Jamali, and one of Iran’s male heavyweights is training in London, having sought asylum.

"I have been faced with many problems, without any support of any organisation," Jahanfekrian said today.

"If I could get a coach, any support, my performance will massively improve."

Florian Sperl, President of the German Weightlifting Federation and an IWF Board member, raised the subject of refugees at a recent IWF Board meeting.

He was appointed as liaison between the IWF and the IOC and sent on a fact-finding mission to Lausanne, where he met Gonzalo Barrio, project manager of the IOC refugee team.

"He suggested that the IWF should create its own refugee team," Sperl said.

"Athletics and judo have refugee teams and I have recommended to our Board that we do the same.

"I will find out as much as I can, speak to Cyrille Tchatchet and others, and will draw up a policy to be presented to the board on March 24 in Albania, before the IWF Youth World Championships."

The IWF policy will be drawn up in line with, and in partnership with the IOC, said Sperl.

Details on funding, eligibility, timing and so on will emerge in the coming months said Sperl, but the overall goal is "to give refugees the chance to compete at IWF events and continental events - it would have nothing to do with the Olympic games as the IOC has its own refugee team".

The athletics refugee team is run by a separate charitable foundation to which World Athletics makes a small contribution.

Sperl and Petr Krol, chair of the IWF coaching and research committee, are aware of the importance of a network of coaches and clubs that would offer to help refugees.

Krol said many clubs in central Europe had been helping weightlifters from Ukraine this year.

Tchatchet found that essential grassroots help when he applied for asylum in Britain in 2016 after living rough on the streets.

He was housed in a refugee centre in Birmingham, was not allowed to work, and had an allowance of £39 a week.

"I met a coach, Singh Cheema, at Warley weightlifting club near Smethwick in Birmingham and he really helped me," said Tchatchet.

He also had help from Middlesex University, where he studied nursing after his status was assured, from other coaches, from British Weight Lifting and eventually from the IOC.

"With that support I really felt like somebody," he said.

There will be problems for any members of an IWF team when it comes to travel.

"As far as I am aware, asylum seekers cannot travel pending their application, which means they could only be supported to train and compete at national competitions during this period," said Tchatchet.

"When they are granted asylum, most countries can issue a Refugee Convention travel document which will now aid with travelling to international competitions."

Tchatchet qualified as a nurse specialising in mental health and now lives and works in Birmingham.

He is a candidate for the IWF Athletes' Commission, for which voting ends on Friday, and is keen to help on the IWF's refugee project.