New Delhi: Yusra Mardini is a retired swimmer and currently works as a broadcaster, covering the Refugee Olympic Team at the Paris Olympics 2024 for Discovery. She is a two-time Olympian, who has retired from the sport with her last action in the pool was seen in June 2022.
Born on March 5, 1998, in Damscus, the capital city of Syria, Yusra’s life was surrounded by warzone environment. However, inspired by her father, who was a swimmer in his youth days, she dreamed of appearing at the Olympics, and thus focused on her training.
It was the year 2015 which upended her life when she fled from Syria to Greece after a bomb hit the pool where the swimmer was training at. According to a report in the Financial Times, Yusra Mardini travelled across eight-mile stretch between Turkey and Greece while she was forced to dive overboard to pull a faulty motor boat. She swam with her sister Sara, and other refugees (20 in total as mentioned in the report).
After arriving in Germany, Yusra resumed her training for swimming. Within a year, she represented the inaugural Refugee Olympic Team (consisting of 10 members) at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She competed in the 100m butterfly event. The German-based swimmer again participated in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when she made to the 29-member squad of the Refugee Olympic Team.
Yusra Mardini post retirement
After the Summer Games in Tokyo, Yusra didn’t participate in enough competitions and soon called it time on her sporting journey. She has continued to assume the role of Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee agency.
In 2022, Welsh-Egyptian film director Sally El Hosaini directed a biographical sports film named The Swimmers. The film was based on the real-life story of Yusra Mardini and her sister Sarah Mardini’s journey across the Aegean Sea. The film is available to watch on popular American OTT platform Netflix.
After the film, Yusra has been pursuing a four-year film and TV production degree at the University of Southern California.
She recently visited Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya where she met 21-year-old Perina Lokure Nakang, who will represent the Refugee Olympic Team at Paris Olympics in 800m. Yusra interviewed Nakang for ELLE.com, discussing a wide range of topics impacting lives of other refugees. The 26-year-old Yusra later reached at the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Bayeux in France to tell the stories of members of Refugee Olympic Team as a broadcaster for her third Summer Games after featuring in two as an athlete.
She also runs Yusra Mardni Foundation as a non-profit organisation.
It was the year 2015 which upended Yusra Mardini’s life when she fled from Syria to Greece after a bomb hit the pool where the swimmer was training in Damscus. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
