Never Give Up

How tough is your journey? A year ago, 17-year-old Yusra Mardini was stuck in a broken down dinghy with 20 other Syrian refugees, between Turkey and Greece. Facing death like so many who had failed to make the trip, she and her sister jumped in the water and swam, pulling the boat all the way to land, saving everyone on board (almost all whom couldn’t swim). Already a great story, it could end there. Incredibly, Yusra is at Rio 2016. She represents no country, carries no flag and sings no National Anthem, at the Games. She is an Olympic Athlete with the first ever Refugee Olympic Squad. In 2012, Yusra’s family home was destroyed in the Daraya Massacre, when Assad’s forces killed hundreds of their own citizens in their homes. For the next three years, Yusra and her family tried to return to a normal life, but school was cancelled practically every week, “or someone is shooting, and then you have to run.” So Yusra and her sister made a bid to escape - getting smuggled to the Turkish coast to board a dinghy heading to Greece. As she remembers, “There were 200, 300 people there, everyone waiting until there are no police in the sea, so they can go.” Yusra’s crowded dingy’s engine died within 20 minutes of leaving. Only four in the boat could swim, but the two men who jumped in with Yusra and her sister soon gave up. Yusra says, “I’m thinking, what? I’m a swimmer, and I’m going to die in the water in the end?” So it was up to the two girls to keep going for the next three and a half hours: “The little kid kept looking at me, scared, so I was doing all these funny faces.” They made it to Lesbos. Then they were smuggled through Serbia to Hungary, Austria and, finally, Germany - where she spent the winter queueing up for days at a time to get asylum papers. So how did she end up at the Olympics? Yusra says: “I remember everything… I never forget. But it’s the thing that’s pushing me actually to do more and more. Crying in the corner, that’s just not me.” She continued with her passion for swimming and joined a local swimming club in Berlin, where her talent was seen by the National Team and IOC. She decided to make a bid for the Olympics - despite having no country to compete for - and qualified for the 100m Freestyle & 100m Butterfly. Now - one year after her swim across the Aegean Sea - Yusra is competing in the Rio Olympics. “I want to show everyone that, after the pain, after the storm, comes calm days. I want to inspire them to do something good in their lives.” “My message at these Games: Never give up."