18-year-old Syrian Refugee Yusra Mardini Swims Her Way to Olympic Glory
Last year, 18-year-old Yusra Mardini swam for three and half hours to save the lives of her fellow Syrian refugees. Now, she’s trying to shave seconds off her fastest swim time in hopes of setting a personal best.
Yusra is one of ten members of the first-ever all refugee team that will compete at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next week.
By now you probably know her story, how the teenager left her family behind and fled the war in Syria. How when she and her sister were smuggled across the border in Turkey and sent across the Aegean Sea, the dinghy carrying 18 people took on water. And how she and her sister dived into the cold, murky waters and swam to push the boat to safety on the shore in Lesbos.
Her journey didn’t end there. Yusra and her sister continued on a treacherous path through Europe: Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and eventually to Germany. Some of it was covered by bus or train, some by foot.
They eventually settled in a refugee camp near Berlin, where the last thing she had to worry about us was when she would get back into the pool. But soon enough, she felt the itch to swim again and began asking camp officials about local swim clubs.
Yusra has been swimming since the age of 3. She trained with her father, a swim coach, and even competed for the Syrian national team. She had her hopes set on the Olympics (at least, maybe someday). But then war broke out in 2011.
Like too many Syrian girls, Yusra’s life was turned upside down from the crisis in her homeland. School would be canceled for days at a time. Her family’s home was destroyed. So was the roof of the center where she trained.
Yusra couldn’t take it any longer. “I told my mom, ‘O.K., enough is enough,” Mardini told the New York Times. “And she said, ‘Fine, find someone I can trust to take you, and you can go.’” It’s only fitting that Yusra would swim to safety, arriving on the shores of Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
“I want everyone to think refugees are normal people who had their homelands and lost them not because they wanted to run away and be refugees, but because they have dreams in their lives and they had to go,” Yusra told The Independent.
“Everything is about trying to get a new and better life and by entering the stadium we are encouraging everyone to pursue their dreams,” she continued.
Yes, Yusra’s story is mythic, but it’s also not that different from so many other refugee girls. With more than 130 million girls around the world deprived of an education, they must take historic measures just to live a normal life.
We celebrate Yusra because she embodies the resilient spirit of so many girls who fight to achieve their dreams. We believe that a child does not lose her right to education — or her shot at Olympic glory — because her country goes to war and makes her a refugee.
As the Summer Olympics being in Rio next week, we will be rooting for Yusra and the nine other members of Team Refugee. There are just 10 refugees on the team, but they represent a population of more than 65 million people who were forced from their home countries.
Join us in cheering on #TeamRefugees! Share your good luck message on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag @TeamRefugees.
