The Inspiring Yusra Mardini: An Olympic Refugee Swimmer Who Saved 20 Lives From A Sinking Boat

For the first time in Olympics, a contingent of 10 athletes will be representing the Refugees.

They are athletes from countries torn apart by wars and infighting that their only option was to flee to another country. these athletes, however, did not become citizens of the countries that adopted them but continued to remain refugees – wishing that one day they might go back to their homeland.

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Yusra Mardini is one of the 10 Olympic athletes from the Refugee contingent. She is a swimmer and a very good one at that. And not just in the pools.

She once swam to save 20 lives. How?

Yusra was a star swimmer in Damascus, Syria before civil war tore the country apart.

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Her talent was recognized early on and she was even endorsed by the Syrian Olympic Committee for being an exciting prospect to bring the medals in.

 

But war tore the country apart. But Yusra still kept swimming, sometimes in swimming pools with their roofs blown apart by bombings

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“And sometimes you would be swimming in pools where the roofs were [blown open] in three or four places.”

There comes a time when you just cannot keep on going, and that time had come when Damascus became too unstable and Yusra’s family decided to flee the country.

She and her sister Sarah traveled through Lebanon and Turkey to reach Greece.
If you have kept an eye on the news about the Syrian refugees, you must have come across their stories where they crowd up on a boat and try to cross rivers and even high seas to get into a country illegally.

 

And that is exactly what happened. Yusra was on a rubber boat with 20 other people and had just floated off the coast of Turkey.

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The motor on the boat began to fail before it stopped completely. The refugees were now stranded midsea, and the motor would not start. What could they do?

 

Yusra jumped into the sea with two other swimmers and pushed the boat full of 20 people for 3 hours until they reached Lesbos.

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One of her hands was tied to the boat, so she could not use it. But she swam with all her strength, using her other hand and two legs.

“It was three and half hours in cold water. Your body is almost like … done. I don’t know if I can describe that.”

 

She takes the memory as a good one because they survived.

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Yusra trained in Berlin for the Rio Olympic Games. Her trainer says she trains hard and with a lot of commitment.

“Maybe I will build my life here in Germany, and when I am an old lady I will go back to Syria and teach people about my experience.”

 

She may or may not win a medal at the Olympics, but she has already won in life.

News Source – Independent

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