Syrian teenager Yusra Mardini has been through much more than most girls her age have, making headlines alongside her sister Sarah after swimming for three and a half hours through the Aegean Sea, pushing the broken-down refugee boat that she was on to safety on the shores of Greece. Despite the horrors that she experienced whilst fleeing Damascus, Mardini is determined to spread a positive message when she becomes the first member of the Refugee Team to compete in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Saturday in the women's 100 meter butterfly heats.
Speaking at a press conference in Rio, Mardini said that it is important to remember the good memories and motivate herself. Alongside the nine other refugee athletes making up the Refugee Team which will march under the IOC flag at Friday's opening ceremony in Rio, Mardini said: "A lot of things have happened in our lives that were really bad... but remember that life will not stop for you." She went on to say that there are a lot of people who had put their hopes in the team, and they are not prepared to let them down.
Germany-based Mardini is joined in the pool by fellow swimmer Rami Amis, who also fled Syria as a refugee. The team also consists of six track-and-field athletes and two judoka, Popole Misenga and Yolande Bukasa, both from Congo but currently settled in Brazil. Speaking of the team, Mardini said that each of its representatives are keenly aware of this huge opportunity to present a positive, inspiring representation of refugees. She said that her goal is for everyone to know that most refugees are normal people who have had to flee their homelands, rather than leaving them because they wanted to. She added: "They have dreams in their lives, and had to go. Everything is about trying to get a new, better life and by entering the stadium, we are encouraging everybody to follow their dreams."
Mardini's Story
The 18-year old Syrian was officially named as a member of the Refugee Team in June and is expected to compete in the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly. Not long after she began professional swimming training again soon after she arrived in Germany, her coach was already convinced that she could easily be a viable candidate for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But, upon hearing that the International Olympic Committee were considering building a refugee team, she and Mardini realized that the swimmer's Olympic hopes and dreams could well come sooner. She was granted a training scholarship by the committee in January and has been training rigorously daily. Although she is not expecting a medal in Rio -- her fastest times are 9 to 11 seconds behind official Olympic qualifying times -- bookmakers are taking bets on how she does, and she's hoping that her participation alone will have a positive impact on the world, both in the sports industry and beyond.
The CEO of Bookmaker Ratings, Paruyr Shahbazyan, was quoted as saying that "these two girls are an inspiration, not only for the Olympics but for the sport as a whole". It will be interesting to see how they perform in action. From swimming through the Aegean Sea to safety from a war-stricken country to competing as an Olympic athlete, Mardini is hoping to inspire everyone to follow their dreams, no matter where they take you.