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Behold the heroine, Yusra Mardini (Photo: AP)

Eighteen-year-old Syrian girl, Yusra Mardini was one of those who made the novel Refugee Team the novel Refugee Team the Rio Olympics. Yesterday, Yusra who is a swimmer, lost the first heat of the women’s 100m butterfly.

However, in Rio and around the world, she is being hailed as a winner and a heroine. She is being celebrated for participating at all in the Olympics. Perhaps, the consciousness of her special status made her to wear a golden smile as she emerged out of the pool.

Indeed, Yusra Mardini is not just any other girl. With swimming, she helped save 20 people, including herself, from drowning in the Aegean Sea.

Last year, when she was only 17, she and her sister Sarah, decided to flee their war-ravaged city of Damascus in Syria to flee their war-ravaged city of Damascus in Syria to wherever the safety of their lives could be guaranteed. They decide to head for the Greek Island of Lesbos.

So, they first made it to Beirut in Lebanon and from there, they proceeded to Turkey. They were reasonably confident that from Turkey they would make it by sea to Lesbos. As it turned out, the journey from Turkey could have been the last they ever made. An old boat in which they were travelling was loaded with 20 passengers instead of the six persons it was meant to ferry. The greater danger came when the dinghy’s engine failed, one hour into the journey.

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Faced with the uncanny prospect of death in the sea, Yusra, her sister and an older woman —the only three passengers who could swim —leapt into the sea, determined to try to save their co-travellers and themselves.

The trio began to swim in the cold sea while dragging the boat with its terrified passengers along. They made it! Yusra told reporters in Rio, “I thought it would be a shame if I drowned in the water because I am a swimmer.” While still in Damascus, she continued to swim whenever and wherever she could do so. Times were, when she had to swim in pools whose roofs had been blown away by bombs.

From the Greek Island of Lesbos, she made it to Germany where she has now settled, living in the city of Berlin. At the Olympics, she is one of a 45-member contingent called the Olympic Refugee Team. She told reporters after losing the heats of the 100m butterfly: “The only thing I ever wanted was to compete at the Olympics. It was amazing.”