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When Yusra was little she was too scared to get into the pool.
But the pool also excited her.
Little by little she braved the pool and started to swim.
Dad trained her and her sister.
Yusra started winning competitions.
Now she loved swimming, it was her favorite place.
It made her problems disappear.
When she was 13 years old, her country was at war.
Many Syrians wanted their government to be a democracy.
But the countries president Aasad didn't.
There were huge protests, government shot them. Violence, became worse.
Conflict between protesters and government turned into a full blown Civil war.
Innocent regular people died.
Yusra family moved to capital of Syria- Damascus, it was safe there.
And then war reached Damascus.
One day Yusra and dad walked to the gym and there were huge holes in the roof and rubble in the pool.
Pool had been bombed so there was no where to swim.
They lived in constant fear.
At 14 years old Yusra begged parents to go to Europe.
Sister was a toddler, parent's said it was too dangerous for the 5 of them.
One day when no one was home, their house was destroyed.
They lost everything.
Mother cried but she had a plan.
2 of Yusra's cousins had a plan to make a trip to Europe.
They took Yusra and her older sister.
The plan was to go to Berlin.
Yusra heard there were good swimmers in Germany.
Yusra hugged her sister and parents good bye.
She left with almost nothing.
Some clothes, cell phone and cash to pay the smugglers that would help her and her sister sneak across borders.
Because in many neighboring countries, Syrians were not welcome.
Yusra, her sister, cousins and a group of refugees Flew to Lebanon then turkey.
Terrified to be caught by police because police would send them back to Syria.
Then they went to a Greek Island called Lesbos.
They hid in the woods by the beach.
Waiting for smugglers to say it was safe to move onto the small boat.
They made it on to the boat but they were spotted by Turkish coastguards.
They were forced back to shore.
They tried again at night.
They made it on to the boat and into the Mediterranean Sea.
But then the motor broke and water was creeping in.
They tried to fix it.
The dingy was built to hold 6 people but there was 20 of them crammed in.
They threw all their stuff overboard to try keep afloat but that didn't work.
Only 4 out of 20 people could swim.
Yusra plus the other 3 swimmers jumped into the water and started pulling and pushing the boat.
They were so tired pulling and pushing 16 people.
Finally the shore was getting closer.
They dragged the boat onto shore and collapsed.
They had swam for 3 and a half hours.
But they made it!
They traveled North across the borders.
Hid in a corn field.
Tried to sneak through to Hungry.
They got caught by Hungarian officers.
They laughed as they weren't scared because of what they had just over come.
When they got to the refugee camp they ran away.
After a month across 9 countries they made it to Berlin.
Slept in refugee camp for months on the ground.
Yusra heard about a swimming club.
Coach could tell she was good.
Yusra started training.
She trained before school and after classes.
In 2016 Olympics created the first Refugee team.
Yusra became a proud Olympian.
She was the only member in her refugee team that competed in the 100M butterfly and she won.
Yusra want's gold in 2020.
Parents and younger sister are living with her now.
They're still in Berlin.
Yusra said it doesn't matter what country she swims for, what matters is making all the refugees watching proud.
She wan't everyone watching to know, that even without a country you are someone, someone worthy of being considered the best in the world.
Kia Ora Zayden,
ReplyDeleteWell done for writing such a detailed recount of the challenges that Yursa faced. Most people don’t realise how frightening it must have been to live in constant fear that you could get caught up in the fighting. They were very brave to flee and to find a safer place to live. I imagine pushing the dinghy for over three hours was very tiring and scary experience. They must have felt very proud and relieved when they made it to shore safely.
Did you know she hasn’t qualified yet for the 2020 Olympics? I hope she does though because I would love to see her swim and reach her dream of winning a gold medal. Are you looking forward to watching the Olympics?
Blog ya later!
Dani