A Syrian Refugee Fights for Olympic Dreams

Hushkin, you do hear the bombings all the time when you're living in the war zone.

So me and my.

Older sister were like, we need to go because it's only getting worse. We knew that we're not safe. We knew that every day you get out of the apartment is a risk and you might never see your family again.

When Olympic swimmer You Sir Mardini was just a teenager, she and her sister fled their homeland of Syria. They went on a dangerous journey across Europe before finally seeking asylum in Germany.

I was in a refugee camp when I arrived for a few months, and me and my sister and everyone else got to Germany. We had so much paperwork to do. We sometimes would wait in line from twelve am until eight am the next day to have just a number. That's how crazy it was at that point, and for me, my escape was sports.

On today's episode, a Syrian refugee fights for her dreams. I'm maya Shunker and this is a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become in the face of a big change. As a teenager used her care at about two things, hanging out with her friends and swim practice. She was a star on the Syrian national swim team and had big dreams of

I remember one time I was thirteen years old. I was walking to see my friends and there was like a bomb attack, literally like two hundred meters behind me. I look back, I go to the pharmacy. I stand there for a few minutes and I continue afterwards. That's how normal it became. And I wouldn't tell my mom because then I cannot go out. I had a friend where she did lose her life while being in her bedroom.

Yeah, you've mentioned such dangerous circumstances, and I know that this danger followed you to the pool. You're one place of refuge. So do you mind describing what that was like.

Yeah.

So the pool is a fifty meter pool and the building is mostly glass. Sometimes I'd be swimming like backstroke and I'll see holes in the roof because of the missiles. I remember that day we were practicing, just like any other day. You heard something like a really loud knock, but you didn't know what was going on. It took us a moment to realize that it was literally a missile in the water. It did not explode, so the coach was shouting at everyone to go hide. Everyone started running.

What solace, if any did you find in the act of swimming, Like, did that help bring structure focus to your life during this time? Oh?

Yeah, I did not want to let it go.

For me, it was about proving that I am talented enough that I you know, I'm always going to be the fastest. If I want something in life, I work very, very hard to get it. My mom would shout at me because I would come back home so tired. I'll sleep with my backpack, That's how tired I was.

When did you and your sister I first realize that you might want to try and leave Syria, Because I mean, obviously what you've described us is so unimaginably harrowing, but it's still so challenging to imagine leaving everyone and everything you know and love behind. I mean, it's just hard to understate the pull of home.

Yeah, me and my older sister were like, we need to go because it's only getting worse. We knew that we're not safe, we knew that every day you get out of the apartment is a risk and you might never see your family again.

So the first conversation.

That we had was with my dad. We were like, we need to go to Germany. They were just welcoming refugees, and he said no. My mom said no. For my parents, the conversation was not even on the table. For us to leave two girls living alone, that's insane. And my dad was like, find me someone I could trust. And then our cousin came by and he was going with his uncle. So then we opened the conversation with my family again. And then it took ten days for us to leave. My mom was crying every day for ten

Wow. Yeah, they said that on the plane.

Because they knew so many people were headed down the same yeah, towards the same machine.

They knew.

Yeah, they knew there were thousands of people trying to escape Syria.

Were you scared, you, Sarah? You say everything is so matter of factly, and so I'm just so curious, like, and you're seventeen years old at this time, right, Yeah.

I think this part I'm thankful for my parents for because they raised us to be ready for everything, and every time I doubted anything I was like, my sister's here.

She's here.

I used to like beg her for like sleepover in her bed, even though like we're in the same room. So she gives me sort of some type of peace, even though we're very different. Me and my sister were very different, but whenever she's there, she was like a parent for me too, how much older three years So I was like, Okay, my sister's here, and for me, I knew that this was my last chance to survive and try to survive and fight for everything. It's the

You say, there's so many parts of your harrowing journey. It took twenty five days, but I want to focus in on one part of the journey, which is when you found a smuggler to help you take a small boat across the sea in order to get to Greece.

Yeah, we found these smugglers and yeah they were like, okay, you have to pay thy five hundred euros for each person for the sea journey, and you're gonna come tomorrow to this place again at five pm. It was to take us to the island, one of the closest islands in Turkey to Greece. So we all pack this one pack pack that we had from Syria. We didn't have anything else. Anyway, you sit in the bus, you close

So what was it like finally getting into this little I mean when I say boat, I mean literally like it's a small rapper boat.

Yeah, it's very inhumane.

So the dinghy like fits usually like if you want to be comfortable for like five six people, and we were twenty people and one child that was six years old. So the smugglers take people, let them on the boat, they start the motor for you, and they let you go. Whatever happens afterwards, that's it. So usually the trip does not take more than like forty five minutes because obviously the islands are so close. So we got on the boat and then the motor stops after like fifteen minutes.

You had confidence that you and your older sister would survive this because you're swimmers. But what was painful for you is the idea that maybe everyone else might not.

Me and my sister, we could have swum it. We swum open water before ninety percent of the people on the boat did not know how to swim. I also remember doing like smiley faces for the kid, like staying my tongue out because I didn't want him to feel like we were drowning.

What was it like on an emotional level to share in an experience like this with a group of strangers, I mean, people you didn't even know days prior.

Even though the strip was horrible in every aspect, the inhumane way we were treated, I think we were very, very lucky to have those people on the boat because we all worked together to save each other's lives. You can make it in life on your own, but it's not as beautiful as when everyone makes it.

We'll be back in a moment with a slight change of plans. Everyone in Eusra's boat made it safely across the sea to Greece. After they arrived, User and her sister continued their journey, mostly by foot, through four more countries before finally reaching Berlin. They were accepted into refugee housing, where they found safety but little privacy. Eustra spent her days filling out mountains of paperwork to seek asylum. She missed her family in swim practice and the warm weather back home.

The moment I got to Germany, it was gray and cold, and I did not like it at all. I was saying, I'm going to go back home soon. This is temporary. I didn't want to give up on going back to my country. I was, of course thankful to be in a country where they took us in as refugees, but it is not that simple or easy. I know refugees that do not feel like they fit in until today and it's eight years since they left Syria.

It's not that they're.

Not trying, but the trauma and to process everything they went through is not easy. Not everyone's welcoming. Me and my sister were very, very lucky to meet incredible people that wanted to help. But not everyone meets people that want to help and want to make them feel at home.

Yeah.

So I was in a refugee camp when I arrived for a few months, and me and my sister and everyone else that got to Germany, we had so much paperwork to do. We sometimes would wait in line from twelve am until eight am the next day to have just a number. That's how crazy it was at that point. And for me, my escape was sports. I think after three months of getting to Germany, we made an appointment with a swimming club and the coach goes, okay, can you go change and jump in the pool. I want

And after that, yeah, I went back to practice.

Wow. Wow, Yeah, you go back to practice and you're in the pool again. So yeah, walk me through what that evolution was like.

Yeah.

So I met Sven, which was my coach at the time. I sat down with him and he said, what are your goals? And I said, I want to go to the Olympics. And it was twenty fifteen, so my goal and his goal was that I participate at the Tokyo Olympics twenty twenty.

Then there was an announcement.

That the creation of the first ever refugee Olympic team will happen in Rio twenty sixteen that I did not consider going as a refugee. At that point, I did not want to. I was struggling because where I come from, a refugee wasn't something great like being like, oh, yeah, I'm a refugee I left, I'll be like, no, I'm Syrian.

I want to earn my spot.

I want to prove that I belong at the Olympics, that I did everything I could in my life for the sport. When I did not want to go to the Olympics as a refugee, my mom was like, if you don't remember how hard you worked, remember the hours I was waiting for you and driving you to practice and drying your hair, making your sandwiches.

I love how they said, like, if you don't remember how hard you were, remember how hard we worked.

Oh. Absolutely.

And then my dad, I remember him coaching me all the time. Yeah, my sister being my biggest supporter and competitor. At the same time, they all told me sometimes there are opportunities in life that you will never have again, and we know how hard you worked and how much you deserve that you should go. I went back to swim and I told him I want to go to the Olympics. But I was still not okay, like not one hundred percent sure about what is this refugee Olympic team.

But the moment that everything changed.

For me about who I am, about what a refugee is is the moment I stepped foot in the Olympic stadium. In the opening ceremony, I realized that every person in that stadium stood up for the team. I met the team, and I realized that this team is just about to give the world a very strong message. We do not come from the same countries, yet we are forming this team that sends a message of hope to the world. It was an incredible time for me and that's where everything started.

Yeah, your experience in the twenty sixteen Olympics changed you so much that you opted to be part of the Olympic refugee team in twenty twenty. Right, that was a proactive choice. Tell me a bit more about that.

Yes, I decided to go to Tokyo again and I was working really hard to be there, and the Syrian team reached out and told me you qualified for us and you can go with Syria, and I respected that and that was very a happy moment for me because it was something that I wanted to know that I've done in life. But I chose to compete for the refugee Olympic team because of what I am trying to do in life right now, which is change the people's perspective and ideas about refugees and what can we do

Wow, that's amazing. You Srah, can you tell me to bring me after speed on present day? I mean, you since retired from swimming, you built this foundation. Tell me a bit more about the foundation and what your goals are for how you spend the rest of your life.

I decided that it was time to move on from swimming and it's time for studying. I study film and TV production because I'm a storyteller and I want to be able to tell other people's stories, not just mine. I know that the events that happen in my life are so insane, but I am so thankful because now I get to say I know that I can help people, and I know that I can tell people that they

And then tell me about your family. Estra, your parents and your little sister were also able to successfully make it to Germany, and I'm wondering how your whole family is doing today.

So pretty well, all of them live in Berlin, Germany. My dad is still swimming coach, lifeguard, and my mom does a physical therapy now. My little sister is super smart.

I love talking to her.

She's so driven and smart that I cannot wait to see what she's going to do in the future. And my older sister, yeah, Sarah, still does advocacy work and is still based in Berlin, USA.

I'm curious to know what you wish people better understood about your experience as a refugee.

It took me a while to fit in in Germany so and I was seventeen. It took my parents way longer than me to feel comfortable, to feel like they fit in, to feel like they can feel like they are a part of the society. But I'm going to tell you one thing that is actually really sad. But this is the reality of life. We as refugees sometimes feel detached from where we come from and we don't

And this is a.

Pain that refugees have. They that they're gonna have for a very long time. And that's okay and that's normal.

Hey, thanks so much for listening. Be sure to check out the other two stories in this series if you haven't heard them yet, with Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin and Paralympic gold medalist Brad Snyder. And next week join me for a conversation with doctor Molly Millwood, a therapist who's honest writing about motherhood has changed how so many