One year ago, Yusra Mardini pushed a sinking dinghy filled with refugees through the frigid Aegean Sea for over three hours -- today, the 18-year-old Syrian swimmer is heading to the Rio Olympics to compete in two women's swimming events! Yusra is one of ten athletes selected for a special Olympic Refugee Team, which will compete under the Olympic flag and represent the more than 60 million refugees around the world today. Not only will the young athlete be fulfilling the dream of a lifetime to compete at the Olympic Games, Yusra also sees it as an opportunity to inspire those left behind in her war-torn homeland: "I want them to not give up,” she says. “I want everyone to think of their dreams because a lot of people there forgot their dreams. A lot of things happened, and it was really bad... We motivate ourselves because there are a lot of people who (expect) a lot from us. A lot of people have hopes in us, and we can’t let them down.”
A swimmer from the age of three, Yusra was beginning to train seriously with the support of the Syrian Olympic Committee when the civil war broke out nearly five years ago and she went from being a typical teenager to living in a war zone. Her family's home and the swimming facility where she trained were both destroyed by bombs. As conditions continued to deteriorate and everyday life became a constant struggle, she realized she had to escape. “Maybe I'm going to die on the way," she remembers thinking. "But I'm almost dead in my country... I could not take it anymore.”
Last August, she and her older sister Sarah said goodbye to their family and set out on a dangerous 25-day journey from Syria to Germany. In the midst of the journey, she found herself packed on a dinghy designed to carry six with 19 other people. Within thirty minutes of leaving Turkey, the motor stopped working and the boat began to take on water. Yusra and her sister, along with two other swimmers, jumped into the water to push it toward the Greek island of Lesbos. Even after the two older male swimmers gave up, the two young women continued to swim for three and a half hours. Thanks to their efforts, everyone made it safely ashore but Yusra says that the experience was grueling and the sight of the sea makes her feel faint even now: "It was three and half hours in cold water. Your body is almost like... done. I don’t know if I can describe that."
After making her way to Berlin, Yusra settled briefly in a refugee camp, which referred her to one of the city's swimming clubs. Coach Sven Spannerkrebs was so impressed by Yusra that he began training her with the goal of making it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Then the IOC announced the refugee team, giving her an unexpected opportunity to compete this year -- and to tackle stereotypes about what being a refugee means. “A lot of people think refugees had no home, that they had nothing at all,” she says. “No, we had everything like you.” Her parents and younger sister have now joined the young women in Berlin, and the whole family is thrilled that Yusra has this chance to compete. “It's a dream come true,” says Yusra, who will swim in the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly. “The Olympics is everything, it's a life chance... [Swimming is] my passion, it's my life, you can't explain. It's the most important thing in my life. It's in my heart and I want to achieve something in it."
Congratulations to this Mighty Girl for making the team and good luck at the Olympics! To read more about Yusra's story in the New York Times, visit http://nyti.ms/2apCZWw
For our favorite t-shirt for kids and adults that honors the strength of Mighty Girls, check out the “I'm not strong for a girl. I'm just strong.” t-shirt at http://www.amightygirl.com/strong-t-shirt
For books for young readers that celebrate girls and women who love sports -- including numerous Olympians -- check out our "Sports & Games" section at http://amgrl.co/1Mp8ZQ5
For books for children and teens about girls who sought refuge and opportunity in new lands, check out our new blog post, "25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855
For several books about Mighty Girl who become refugees following conflict, we recommend "Four Feet, Two Sandals" for ages 6 to 9 (http://www.amightygirl.com/four-feet-two-sandals), "The Red Pencil," a novel in verse for ages 9 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-red-pencil), and "The Bite of the Mango" for ages 14 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-bite-of-the-mango).
And, for books for children and teens about more Mighty Girl role models who, like Yusra Mardini, demonstrate incredible determination to reach their goals, visit our "Perseverance" section at http://amgrl.co/1hNzWVS
