Someone said that the winner is the dreamer who didn’t give up. However, what you dream about and what you win doesn’t always follow a linear path, and when it does, you only find out about it at the end of the story. TO Yusra Mardini, a Syrian swimmer born 25 years ago in a suburb of Damascus, happened like this. All his life he dreamed Olympic Games: every wake-up call at dawn, every swim in the pool, every stroke had to be used to get her there. And instead, it was not athletic fatigue but human resilience that led her to this dream, not training, but a journey: one she made with her sister Sarah, first in a rubber boat across the Aegean and then on foot across the Balkans to reach to Germany and life protected from war.

Kasapoglu mine

The strength not to give up and the meeting with the German coach did the rest, giving her a ticket to Games in Rio in 2016 in the refugee group. The story that went around the world and for the first time became a book, Butterfly. From refugee to Olympic athlete (Joints) and then a movie Swimmersreleased on Netflix. Yusra says that looking at him for a moment, she felt pain again. “I said to myself: have I really gone through all this? I will share my experience, I hope it will help other people. I meet her on the terrace of a hotel in Ibiza, where she came to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Arena, a brand that has always supported her and to which she testifies. “I want my story to help others understand that no matter what happens, you must continue to chase your dreams.”

How did your dream start?

As a child in Syria. I started swimming when I was three years old and my father continued to train me. The turning point came when Michael Phelps won gold after gold at the Beijing Games in 2008. It was there that I decided what my future would be. The desire for this medal guided my entire life in childhood and adolescence.

What did he learn in the bath?

Many things like patience, competitiveness, resilience. But the most important thing is that after every failure there is always an opportunity to try again. Knowing that you can fall, get up and try again is a very beneficial mental attitude, and by exercising you soak it up without realizing it. Even without winning Olympic gold.

In Syria, she was trained by her father.

In the pool, I never called him dad, and if I did, I said: “Here I’m not your father, I’m your coach.” He believed in me since childhood, as did Sven, the coach I found in Germany: if I really went to the Olympics, I owe it to him, who convinced me to compete with the refugee team.

Why did he need to convince her?

I wanted to play for my country Syria, not for the refugee team. I did not want a gesture of sympathy, but that my efforts be recognized. Then Sven and my parents let me know that not only my sacrifices were at stake, but everything: my mother who took me to training, my sister who was with me, my father who trained me. Everyone has a role to play in this story.

How was his life in Syria?

Normal at first: school, workouts, outings with friends, dinners at grandma’s. Then came the war. I first heard about it when I was 13 on a school bus. Then everything became real. I remember nights in absolute darkness when I looked out the window to see the light of bullets in the sky.

There is a scene in the film where she and her sister Sarah dance on a terrace lit by bombs in the distance.

This is my favorite scene. We lived like this for years. People think that young people in the Arab world are different, that religion prevents them from doing everything. But that’s only part of the story: we love life too. We love coffee, food, parties, birthday cakes. The war did not take away this desire from us: we danced while someone died under the bombs. We knew that with every explosion someone lost their life or their home, but we felt untouchable.

When did you and Sarah decide to run away?

We started thinking about it a few months before we did it. We heard the stories of many who arrived in Sweden or Germany. Father at first did not agree, then one day he told us: find someone you trust. A week later we left with his friend. There was no time to say goodbye to everyone. We only had a photo collage and a cake prepared for us.

You too, like thousands of refugees, sought salvation by boarding a boat and risking your life between Turkey and the island of Lesvos.

I never thought I’d be in this situation. The boat broke down, but we managed to fix it and hit the road. Above were mostly young people from 18 to 25 years old. There was only one other woman. The wind was strong and threw us back. When we with difficulty broke away from the shore, the engine stalled. We called the police but were told to turn back. The smugglers didn’t even answer. My father’s friend, with whom we were traveling, began to issue orders to resolve the situation. Someone had to get out to lighten the boat. My sister immediately dived and I went with her.”

In the movie, you are towing a boat on a rope.

This is fiction, it would be too hard. In fact, we tried to stabilize it. Sarah stayed in the water for three hours, I for the last half hour; when the engine finally restarted, I got up again. As soon as we landed, we pierced the inner tube so that no one else would risk their lives up there.

After the Cutro tragedy on the coast of Calabria, the Italian government declared that the only way to avoid deaths at sea was to stop sailing.

I, on the other hand, think that if they were really interested in people’s lives, they would send ships to rescue those who are in trouble and open the borders. Italians are generous people who deserve better information about refugees. I don’t blame people if they don’t know who they really are, because I didn’t know that either. The document cannot change the situation. Now I have a German passport and I can travel without problems. Not refugees, even if their lives are at stake.

However, as a refugee, she fulfilled her dream of qualifying for the Olympics.

It took me a while to accept this. My sister convinced me and it was the best decision of my life. When I walked into the stadium in Rio, I felt the respect of the crowd and thought of the young people who saw us from refugee camps around the world. At that moment, I realized what my role was.

His sister is another great hero of this story, but today she disappeared from the radar.

Everything I have, I owe to her. Having her as a sister gave me the strength to do many of the things that brought me here. But instead of turning the page like I did, she returned to helping refugees as a Seawatch volunteer. When she told me I said you’re crazy you want to get back on the boat. But she has much more courage than I do. He is now on trial and risks getting 25 years in prison just for trying to help refugees and welcome them to the beach. And this is ridiculous: she should be rewarded for this, not blamed.

Netflix

Becoming a refugee, will you stay forever?

Yes, you can no longer find a sense of belonging. I have a German passport and citizenship, but I don’t feel German. I am a Syrian girl living in Germany.

His dream today?

Help refugees with my fund. And teach children of migrants to swim. Today, however, I no longer call them dreams, but goals. I’m studying filmmaking in America because I want to learn how to tell real life stories like others have done with me. And then I would like to open a fashion house. Everyone tells me that I’m too young, but I think in ten years, looking back, the worst thing I could do was, at worst, lose money. Dreams are more valuable.