Contemporary Authors

• Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian--My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2018

1. Butterfly : from refugee to Olympian, my story of rescue, hope, and triumph LCCN 2017061098 Type of material Book Personal name Mardini, Yusra, author. Main title Butterfly : from refugee to Olympian, my story of rescue, hope, and triumph / Yusra Mardini. Edition First U. S. Edition. Published/Produced New York : St. Martin's Press, [2018] Projected pub date 1805 Description pages cm ISBN 9781250184405 (hardcover)

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  Yusra Mardini
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  Yusra Mardini

  Yusra Mardini
  Personal information
  Birth name
  Yusra Mardini
  Born
  5th March 1998 (age 20)
  Damascus, Syria
  Occupation
  Swimmer
  Height
  5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
  Spouse(s)
  none
  Sport
  Country
  Syria
  Sport
  Freestyle swimming, Butterfly stroke
  Yusra Mardini (Arabic: يسرى مارديني‎) is a swimmer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She was a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team (ROT), that competed under the Olympic flag at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[1] On 27 April 2017, Mardini was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.[2]

  Contents [hide]
  1
  Early life
  2
  Swimming career
  3
  Popular Culture
  4
  References
  5
  External links

  Early life[edit]
  Growing up in Damascus, Mardini trained in swimming with the support of the Syrian Olympic Committee.[3] In 2012, she represented Syria in the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) 200 metre individual medley, 200 metre freestyle and 400 metre freestyle events.[4]
  Mardini's house was destroyed in the Syrian Civil War.[5] Mardini and her sister Sarah decided to flee Syria in August 2015.[6] They reached Lebanon, and then Turkey, where they arranged to be smuggled into Greece by boat with 18 other migrants,[6] though the boat was meant to be used by no more than 6 or 7 people.[3] After the motor stopped working and the dinghy began to take on water in the Aegean Sea, Mardini, her sister, and two other people who were able to swim[3] got into the water and pushed the boat for over 3 hours until it reached Lesbos.[6] They then traveled through Europe to Germany, where they settled in Berlin in September 2015.[3] Her parents also fled Syria and live in Germany.[7] On 27 April 2017, Mardini was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.[2]
  Swimming career[edit]
  On arrival in Germany, Mardini continued her training with her coach Sven Spannenkrebs from Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 in Berlin, in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics.[3][6] She attempted to qualify in the 200 metres freestyle swimming event.[5] In June 2016, Mardini was one of ten athletes selected for the ROT.[8] Mardini competed in the 100 metres freestyle and the 100 metres butterfly at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.[9] At the Rio Olympics, Mardini won a 100m butterfly heat against four other swimmers, with a time of 1:09.21 and a rank of 41st among 45 entrants.[10][11][12]
  IOC President Thomas Bach said of the refugee athletes, "We help them to make their dream of sporting excellence come true, even when they have to flee war and violence."[13]
  Popular Culture[edit]
  Yusra Mardini's story is told in the short story collection Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo. The story is illustrated by JM Cooper[14], and when the story was released as a podcast episode it was narrated by American journalist and long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad[15]. At the 26th of April 2018 the autobiography "Butterfly" by Yusra Mardini will be published, media announced. It is planned, that director Stephen Daldry will make a movie about her life.[16]

• UNHCR - http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2018/5/5ae880f44/riveting-new-book-tells-unhcr-ambassador-yusra-mardini-swam-history.html#

  Riveting new book tells how UNHCR ambassador Yusra Mardini swam to history
  Athlete who helped guide a stricken dinghy full of refugees to safety went on to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
  By Claire Lewis | 01 May 2018 | Français | عربي

  Yusra Mardini at UNHCR headquarters after being announced as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. © UNHCR/Susan Hopper
  BERLIN, Germany - Swimmer Yusra Mardini, who competed in the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Games, fled her native Syria in 2015 and boarded a small dinghy in Turkey full of refugees bound for Greece.
  When the boat’s engine cut out and it began to sink, Yusra, then aged 17, her older sister Sara and two other people jumped into the water to lighten the load and guide the boat to safety until it reached the Greek island of Lesvos three-and-a-half hours later, saving the lives of those on board.
  Her remarkable story is told in a book, entitled “Butterfly”, which was launched in Berlin on Monday. The English edition will be released in London later this week.
  A year after her ordeal, Yusra competed with the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team in Rio and was subsequently appointed the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
  She was named one of People magazine’s 25 women changing the world and one of Time Magazine’s 30 most influential teens of 2016.
  She says her own experience of flight has made her determined to speak up for those forced to flee and she is happy to represent UNHCR.

  At Monday’s launch she spoke of a trip to Italy where she met African refugees who had landed there: “That was heart-breaking. I really had to cry. My story is nothing compared to the people who fled Africa. They crossed the desert and only one in 14 survives. UNHCR is doing such a fantastic job.”
  Coached by their father, Yusra and her sister were keen swimmers at home in Damascus and her dream was to compete in the Olympics.
  “My family is swimming and swimming is my family,” she said. “That’s all I ever wanted. But then a bomb hit our stadium and my parents did what all parents do when they think the children are in danger. So, we decided to leave Syria.”
  Yusra now lives in Berlin where she is training for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
  She added: “Nobody really decides to flee. We just had no choice. Nobody had a choice.”

  About Yusra
  Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini was appointed the youngest ever UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in April 2017. She advocates for refugees globally through sharing her own inspiring story and has become a powerful voice for the forcibly displaced across the world and an example of their resilience and determination to rebuild lives and positively contribute to host communities.
  Yusra fled the war in Syria with her sister, travelling through Lebanon and Turkey before trying to reach Greece by boat. As competitive swimmers in Syria, when the motor failed, Yusra, her sister and two others jumped into the sea and swam for three hours in open water to stop their dinghy from capsizing, saving the lives of 20 people. Eventually they reached the Greek island of Lesvos. Yusra then made her way across Europe to Germany where she re-started her swimming training in Berlin.
  She was selected to compete at Rio 2016 as part of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team. She was catapulted on to the world’s stage and subsequently went on to address world leaders at the UN General Assembly, meet the Pope and be honoured with several awards. Yusra has written a book about her story which is also being turned into a film, scheduled for release in 2019.
  Using her new platform, together with UNHCR, Yusra is determined to continue to use her own experience of flight to help focus the attention of the world on refugee issues.
  Additional media materials on Yusra are available here.

  Previous support and field visits
  In April 2018 Yusra travelled with UNHCR to meet refugees in Sicily who had undertaken similar journeys to her own to escape conflict and reach safety. Yusra reflected on her trip in a takeover of the official UNHCR Instagram account.
  In August 2017 Yusra travelled with UNHCR to Japan to undertake a series of high level meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Governor of Tokyo, the President and staff at the Tokyo Olympic Games Organising Committee amongst others. She also gave an inspirational speech at a school and undertook several media interviews and a Facebook Live with fellow UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Miyavi.
  Yusra has spoken on behalf of UNHCR at Google Zeitgeist and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos where she also shared her story on the WEF blog.

• London Independent - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/yusra-mardini-rio-2016-olympics-womens-swimming-the-syrian-refugee-competing-in-the-olympics-who-a7173546.html

  Yusra Mardini: Olympic Syrian refugee who swam for three hours in sea to push sinking boat carrying 20 to safety
  The teenage swimmer used her talent and risked her life to help save the lives of 19 others

  Almost every athlete at the 2016 Olympic Games will have an interesting backstory, but Yusra Mardini's is more extraordinary than most.
  Mardini is in Rio to represent a team of 10 refugee Olympic athletes.
  While any other 18-year-old’s biggest achievements may be confined to the A-level results they leave school with, Mardini’s is almost incomprehensible.
  She and her sister are responsible for helping to save the lives of 20 people, including their own, after jumping off their sinking dinghy into the Aegean Sea and pushing their boat to land.
  Mardini, who now lives in Berlin, will compete in the women’s 100-metre butterfly and freestyle heats on Saturday and Wednesday. Her appearance is being touted as one of the most highly anticipated of the Games.
  Refugee crisis - in pictures

  27
  show all
  Syria
  Mardini was a talented swimmer in war-torn Damascus and professionally backed by the Syrian Olympic Committee. As unrest in the besieged country escalated, she would often find herself training in pools where roofs had been blown open by bombings. “Sometimes we couldn’t train because of the war,” she said. “And sometimes you would be swimming in pools where the roofs were [blown open] in three or four places.”

  Damascus became increasingly unstable and Mardini and her sister Sarah eventually left Syria, travelling through Lebanon and Turkey before trying to reach Greece.

  Saving lives

  Thirty minutes after setting off from Turkey, the motor on their boat, which was meant for six people but carrying 20, began to fail. Most of those on board it could not swim. With no other alternative, Mardini, Sarah and two strong swimmers jumped into the sea and swam for three hours in open water to stop their dinghy from capsizing, eventually reaching Lesbos.
  “We were the only four who knew how to swim,” she said of the experience. “I had one hand with the rope attached to the boat as I moved my two legs and one arm. It was three and half hours in cold water. Your body is almost like … done. I don’t know if I can describe that.”
  But while she now hates open water, the memory is not a nightmare for her. “I remember that without swimming I would never be alive maybe because of the story of this boat. It’s a positive memory for me."

  After Lesbos, Mardini and Sarah travelled through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria before arriving at their final destination: Germany.
  Mardini is equally remarkable for her self-effacing attitude and resilience as she is for her life-saving act. “It's tough,” she has said. “It was really hard, for everyone, and I don't blame anyone if they cried. But sometimes you just have to move on.”

  Starting again in Berlin
  Mardini has now settled in Berlin, where she was put in touch with the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 swimming club and taken on as a member. Quickly realising her potential, Coach Sven Spannekrebs began considering Mardini for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But her road to the Games turned out to be a much quicker path.
  Mardini trains for two to three hours every morning, attends school and then continues to train in the evening.

  According to the Guardian, Syria has been monitoring her swimming career and asking for regular updates.
  Tackling the dehumanisation of refugees
  “I want everyone to think refugees are normal people who had their homelands and lost them not because they wanted to run away and be refugees, but because they have dreams in their lives and they had to go,” she said at a press conference announcing her place on the team.

  “Everything is about trying to get a new and better life and by entering the stadium we are encouraging everyone to pursue their dreams.”
  She also has hopes one day that peace could be brought to fruition in Syria and she could take her story home.
  “Maybe I will build my life here in Germany, and when I am an old lady I will go back to Syria and teach people about my experience.”

• CNN - https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/09/sport/yusra-mardini-syrian-swimmer-rio-2016-olympics-spt/index.html

  Yusra Mardini: 'I represent more than Syria, I represent millions around the world'
  By Henry Young, CNN
  Updated 0921 GMT (1721 HKT) May 10, 2018

  (CNN)It took Yusra Mardini a long time to come around to the notion of being a refugee.
  From the day the Syrian fled her home in Damascus to the moment she stepped out into Brazil's Maracanã Stadium as an Olympian, she felt diminished by her newfound status: "reduced to a single word."
  Even as the world reveled in her remarkable story -- winning her butterfly heat at Rio 2016 a year after swimming for her life -- she felt conflicted.
  How things have changed.
  Mardini is now actively reclaiming the label as the youngest ever goodwill ambassador for UNHCR - The Refugee Agency, using her platform to address everyone from Barack Obama to the Pope.
  Tokyo 2020 is on the horizon, but the unwitting star of the Refugee Olympic Team knows now that her greatest battle could well lie outside of the pool.

  Play Video

  Syrian refugee swimmer 'representing millions' 03:27
  "Last Olympics, I represented more than Syria," the 20-year-old Mardini tells CNN Sport. "I represented millions around the world. And I really love this idea. If I'm going to compete under the German flag, or the Syrian flag or the Olympic Flag, I'll be representing all of them.
  "Sport actually gave me this really strong voice. I am using it to help refugees to get them to better places; to get them shelter; and to just let the people understand that they should open borders for them."
  An everyday life turned upside down

  Mardini's journey across land and sea from Syria to Germany is now the subject of a memoir, Butterfly, and an upcoming feature film, directed by Stephen Daldry.
  It is a tale that sheds light on the unimaginable hardship experienced by millions fleeing war-torn countries around the world.
  It starts with a normal family living a decidedly normal life.

  Yusra and her sister Sara were encouraged to swim before they could walk by their father, a coach, and the Olympic dream took hold as they gathered around to watch the exploits of US star Michael Phelps on television.
  The specter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad loomed large even from the beginning -- his portrait hanging above the pool she trained at in the ancient capital of Damascus.
  But Mardini is at pains to communicate that her upbringing was once no different from that of the average Western teenager. She went shopping and ventured out with friends.
  Trouble erupted in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, but the family looked on with a degree of detachment. "This will never happen here."

  Until everything changed.
  Tanks began to prowl the streets, friends mysteriously disappeared and, slowly but surely, Mardini started noticing the mortar shells only in the brief periods when they stopped falling.

  Forced to uproot to new cities on numerous occasions, the sisters decided enough was enough when an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade crashed through the roof and directly into the swimming pool while Yusra trained.
  "You know, I got to a point where I got sick of it," says Mardini. "People were dying, I was doing school, doing swimming, taking care of my little sister, but I felt I'm going nowhere, and I didn't want to be just one person who went through life and just died, you know. I'm not that person.
  "I was like: 'I don't want to give up my life because of a war I didn't start..."
  The journey
  Yusra and Sara resolved to undertake the difficult escape to Germany, leaving behind everything but a single bag of belongings.
  It took 25 days, and the three hours that the sisters spent rescuing others in the Aegean Sea when the motor in their dinghy stopped working was just a fraction of the ordeal.

  From Lesbos in Greece to Budapest in Hungary, they were refused basic commodities like food and a place to stay just because of where they had come from.
  "This was sad because we are trying to find peace, not to bring war," says Mardini, who admits she's no longer able to look at the sea in the same way again.
  "I was really angry at people, because every time I was thinking about it, I remembered that Syria is a country that opened the door for a lot of refugees among the years."

  Yusra and Sara Mardini are seen on stage at the 2016 Bambi Awards. Sara has gone back to the the scene of their plight in Lesbos, in order to help others making similar journeys.

  But even in the worst of times, whether it was exploitative smugglers mistreating them or obstructive authorities hauling them off trains in Hungary, the sisters always had each other.
  A camaraderie that transcended nationality was struck up as a group of around 30 refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and all over the Middle East joined forces.
  "To be honest, before this trip I never believed that people would want to help people without wanting anything from them," says Mardini. "This was really, really the biggest lesson I have ever learned.

  "Because we came together... We didn't care what was my color or his color; we didn't care where he is from or where I am from. We just said: 'We are refugees, we are going to Germany and we are going to stick together.'
  "If I have a biscuit like this small, we will all share it, not because I'm not hungry but because I am happy sharing it with [them]. Because I know those people, when I'm hungry, they will give me food, even if they don't have."
  READ: Refugee Olympic Team - Where are they now?
  A new start
  What the Mardini sisters gained upon their eventual arrival in Germany was tainted with what they had left behind.
  Yusra was initially housed in an overcrowded refugee camp, and recalls thinking, "Surely heaven must be prettier than this."
  "To be honest, when we arrived, when we were in Berlin, I was like 'Take me back home,'" she admits. "You can't say anything because obviously we appreciate that Germany opened the door for us. The numbers were not easy and they were not ready; I understood all of that.
  "But also some stuff was unusual. They would always look at you in a certain way [because] you are a refugee. And, even now, Syrians are suffering from that.
  "This is what I am trying to change. I am here and have reached something -- and I am a refugee also from Syria that came with those people -- so just give them a chance."

  Mardini competing in the women's 100-meter butterfly at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest.
  Mardini was given a chance by German swimming coach Sven Spannekrebs, who offered her a place to stay at the aquatics center and constant support.
  "I can see you're serious ... the way you're committing to training," he said to her one day. "Are you doing this because you just like swimming, or because you really want to achieve something?"
  Mardini's reply was instant: "I want to go to the Olympics."

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Youngest refugee athlete – Mardini's coach, Sven Spannekrebs (pictured left here), will be one of the backroom staff joining the refugee team for Rio.
  Hide Caption
  8 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Popole Misenga: Democratic Republic of Congo, Judo – Congolese judo athlete Popole Misenga sought asylum in Brazil after the 2013 world championships in Rio. He will be on the official Olympic Refugee Team for the 2016 Games in the same city.
  Hide Caption
  9 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  New life in Rio – Misenga, 24, has married a Brazilian and has a young son since being granted asylum. He says Rio is a "magical place" to live.
  Hide Caption
  10 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Anjelina Nadai Lohalith: South Sudan, 1500m – Anjelina Lohalith, 21, left her home country when she was just eight years old. While her family remain in South Sudan, she will now compete in Rio in the 1500m for the Refugee Olympic Team.
  Hide Caption
  11 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yonas Kinde: Ethiopia, Marathon – 36-year-old Yonas Kinde left Ethiopia for Luxembourg in 2012 and immediately pursued his love for running. He soon becoming the best long distance runner in the tiny European country.
  Hide Caption
  12 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  James Nyang Chiengjiek: South Sudan, 400m – Just 13-years-old when he left his home, Chiengjiek managed to avoid the fate of South Sudan's child soldiers. He reached Kenya's Kakuma camp in 2002, quickly capitalizing on his athletic talents despite a lack of top class facilities.
  Hide Caption
  13 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Beyond the team – Raheleh Asemani, formerly a taekwondo athlete for Iran, was on the shortlist for the Olympic Refugee Team -- but will now compete for Belgium in Rio having been granted citizenship.
  Hide Caption
  14 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Woman behind the team – For many years, Kenyan marathon runner Tegla Loroupe has been using athletics to work toward peace in Africa. Five of the Olympic Refugee Team are South Sudanese refugees from her foundation's training center, and she will be the team's chef de mission.
  Hide Caption
  15 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Every competitor at the 2016 Olympics will have undergone a personal journey to reach Rio. But for some athletes, notably a number of refugee competitors, the path has been truly life changing ...
  Hide Caption
  1 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Paul Amotun Lokoro: South Sudan, 100m – Paul Amotun Lokoro fled war in his home country of South Sudan. Years later, the 24-year-old is aiming to not just compete, but thrive at the Olympic Games."I want to win a gold," he says. "If I win the race, I will be famous!"
  Hide Caption
  2 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Rose Nathike Lokonyen: South Sudan, 800m – Fourteen years after leaving South Sudan for the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Rose Nathike Lokonyen is set to line up alongside some of the world's finest middle distance runners at Rio 2016.
  Hide Caption
  3 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yiech Pur Biel: South Sudan, 800m – Pur Biel also fled the Sudanese civil war, arriving at the Kakuma camp in 2005. The 21-year-old cites the prospect of Rio 2016 as "a great moment in my life and a story to my children and grandchildren."
  Hide Caption
  4 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Rami Anis: Syria, Swimming – Six years ago, Rami Anis was swimming for Syria at the Asian Games in China. But in 2011, he fled his home of Aleppo to escape bombing.
  Hide Caption
  5 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Leaving Syria, reaching Rio – His new coach in Belgium believes Anis' place in the Rio 2016 Olympic refugee team is a form of "justice".
  Hide Caption
  6 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yusra Mardini: Swimming, Syria – Joining Rami on the team is 18-year-old Yusra Mardini, another refugee from Syria who now trains in Germany.
  Hide Caption
  7 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Youngest refugee athlete – Mardini's coach, Sven Spannekrebs (pictured left here), will be one of the backroom staff joining the refugee team for Rio.
  Hide Caption
  8 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Popole Misenga: Democratic Republic of Congo, Judo – Congolese judo athlete Popole Misenga sought asylum in Brazil after the 2013 world championships in Rio. He will be on the official Olympic Refugee Team for the 2016 Games in the same city.
  Hide Caption
  9 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  New life in Rio – Misenga, 24, has married a Brazilian and has a young son since being granted asylum. He says Rio is a "magical place" to live.
  Hide Caption
  10 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Anjelina Nadai Lohalith: South Sudan, 1500m – Anjelina Lohalith, 21, left her home country when she was just eight years old. While her family remain in South Sudan, she will now compete in Rio in the 1500m for the Refugee Olympic Team.
  Hide Caption
  11 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yonas Kinde: Ethiopia, Marathon – 36-year-old Yonas Kinde left Ethiopia for Luxembourg in 2012 and immediately pursued his love for running. He soon becoming the best long distance runner in the tiny European country.
  Hide Caption
  12 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  James Nyang Chiengjiek: South Sudan, 400m – Just 13-years-old when he left his home, Chiengjiek managed to avoid the fate of South Sudan's child soldiers. He reached Kenya's Kakuma camp in 2002, quickly capitalizing on his athletic talents despite a lack of top class facilities.
  Hide Caption
  13 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Beyond the team – Raheleh Asemani, formerly a taekwondo athlete for Iran, was on the shortlist for the Olympic Refugee Team -- but will now compete for Belgium in Rio having been granted citizenship.
  Hide Caption
  14 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Woman behind the team – For many years, Kenyan marathon runner Tegla Loroupe has been using athletics to work toward peace in Africa. Five of the Olympic Refugee Team are South Sudanese refugees from her foundation's training center, and she will be the team's chef de mission.
  Hide Caption
  15 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Every competitor at the 2016 Olympics will have undergone a personal journey to reach Rio. But for some athletes, notably a number of refugee competitors, the path has been truly life changing ...
  Hide Caption
  1 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Paul Amotun Lokoro: South Sudan, 100m – Paul Amotun Lokoro fled war in his home country of South Sudan. Years later, the 24-year-old is aiming to not just compete, but thrive at the Olympic Games."I want to win a gold," he says. "If I win the race, I will be famous!"
  Hide Caption
  2 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Rose Nathike Lokonyen: South Sudan, 800m – Fourteen years after leaving South Sudan for the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Rose Nathike Lokonyen is set to line up alongside some of the world's finest middle distance runners at Rio 2016.
  Hide Caption
  3 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yiech Pur Biel: South Sudan, 800m – Pur Biel also fled the Sudanese civil war, arriving at the Kakuma camp in 2005. The 21-year-old cites the prospect of Rio 2016 as "a great moment in my life and a story to my children and grandchildren."
  Hide Caption
  4 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Rami Anis: Syria, Swimming – Six years ago, Rami Anis was swimming for Syria at the Asian Games in China. But in 2011, he fled his home of Aleppo to escape bombing.
  Hide Caption
  5 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Leaving Syria, reaching Rio – His new coach in Belgium believes Anis' place in the Rio 2016 Olympic refugee team is a form of "justice".
  Hide Caption
  6 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Yusra Mardini: Swimming, Syria – Joining Rami on the team is 18-year-old Yusra Mardini, another refugee from Syria who now trains in Germany.
  Hide Caption
  7 of 15

  Photos: Rio 2016 Olympics: Meet the first ever refugee team
  Youngest refugee athlete – Mardini's coach, Sven Spannekrebs (pictured left here), will be one of the backroom staff joining the refugee team for Rio.
  Hide Caption
  8 of 15

  Except she wanted to get there on merit.
  And, when IOC President Thomas Bach revealed plans to bring together the first ever Refugee Olympic Team, the budding swimmer balked at the idea.
  "I was like 'I'm not going,'" Mardini confesses. "Then, to be honest, my dad and my mum talked to me. They kind of reminded me how hard I had worked for that. They told me: 'You've earned this place.'"

  Mardini and German swimming coach Sven Spannekrebs.
  Even when Mardini eventually arrived in Rio, alongside her sister Sara and compatriot Rami Anis, she was "afraid about how people would react."
  But then she and nine other athletes -- from South Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia and Syria -- walked out in the opening ceremony, united under a single flag.
  "And after this moment, a lot of people texted me saying: 'This is what I've done with my life and this is what I'm going to do just because I saw what you did, and just because of this team. This team brings so much hope for the whole world.'"
  READ: 'My life really changed after the Olympics' - Popole Misenga
  A voice for change
  She'd never wanted to be a hero; all she'd ever wanted was to swim.
  But Mardini's mind was made up.
  "Yes, I'm a refugee," she thought. "But I am proud of who I am. I don't think I am any less than anyone."

  Mardini and fellow Syrian refugee Olympic swimmer Rami Anis.
  The 20-year-old's actions since are testament to that.
  Mardini continues to train every day in a bid to make the Tokyo 2020 Games -- whether it's for Syria, the Refugee Olympic Team or Germany -- but her ambitions are no longer confined to the dimensions of a pool.
  Visit CNN.com/sport for more news and features
  "I understand that it's not only sport, it's my life," she says."You can't force people to accept us, or to say 'OK, refugees are all 100% all amazing.'
  "That's also not true. There is always, around the world, the good people and the bad people. What I'm saying is they just have to give them a chance."

• Elle - https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/longform/a39703/syrian-refugee-olympic-swimmer-yusra-mardini/

  From War-Torn Syria To Olympic Swimmer
  Two years ago, 17-year-old Yusra Mardini fled Damascus in a boat, then literally swam for her life when it began to sink (saving 19 fellow passengers in the process). A year later, she competed in the Rio Olympics.

  By Louise Donovan
  07/11/2017
  304

  Yusra Mardini might currently be training twice a day, every day, for two hours, in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics, but she didn't always like swimming. In fact, she hated it. When she was three years old, her Dad, Ezzat – who later became her coach – would repeatedly push her into the water. Once, twice, three times – until she was gasping for air.
  'My Dad wanted to see what level I was at, whether I could actually swim yet,' explains the now 19-year-old, speaking at an Under Armour event in Berlin. 'He threw me in the water and I drowned. Then he got me out and threw me in for a second time and the same thing happened. He kept doing it because he didn't want to believe I was drowning.'
  In the end, Mardini's Uncle interrupted and pointed out that his brother's methods might not be the most helpful. But the story, though sweet, takes on an eerie significance when you realise she found herself in an alarmingly similar situation 14 years later– only this time in the middle of the ocean.
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  Born in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Mardini was a talented swimmer. She was also your typical teenager: seeing friends, going to school.
  'I lead a really normal life, like anyone really,' she explains.

  Then came Syria's civil war, and as unrest in the country escalated, she would find herself training in pools where the roof had been blown to bits by bombs.
  'All of a sudden we were rushed out of the pool to a safe place. But then you would return to training again like nothing had happened, even though there were shooters outside. Imagine that? We got so used to the war.'
  Her hometown became increasingly unstable and Mardini and her sister Sarah eventually left Syria, travelling through Lebanon and Turkey before trying to reach Greece. Their final destination was Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, a Greek island close to Turkey. The teenagers waited in a forest near the shore for four days, and eventually left at dusk on the fourth night. On board the boat, they felt calmer: finally, they were on their way.
  Yet roughly 20 minutes into their journey, the motor stopped.
  Most of those on board (meant for six, not 20 people) could not swim. Without thinking – and with no other alternative – Mardini, Sarah and two strong swimmers jumped into the sea to stop their dinghy from capsizing. The sisters swam with the boat in tow for three and a half hours, clinging to a rope dangling from the side. The original trip should have taken a mere 45 minutes.
  Did she ever feel close to giving up? 'No' comes the firm reply. 'The worst thing is you can see the island but you can never reach it,' Mardini explains. 'You know if you swim you can reach it, but it's hard. And the waves. They were so high. Even as a good swimmer I wouldn't dare go out into those waves. I was petrified.'

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  There was a six-year boy called Mustafa who she and her sister had been playing with in the forest just days earlier. Once on the boat, it was him that kept her going. 'I tried to be really smiley for him. I didn't want him to see that I was tired or for him to look down and see the boat sinking.'
  The sisters eventually reached the shores of Lesbos. With no belongings – save for a pair of shoes donated by someone on the side of the road – they travelled through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria before finally arriving in Germany.
  While Mardini still isn't totally 'comfortable' with open water, she isn't afraid. In fact, she jumped back in after just one week. 'Maybe it was four days,' she contradicts herself, before demonstrating a remarkable resilience: 'you just move on, I think. What else can you do?'
  Looking back, the memory doesn't fill her with fear. She views the experience, though traumatic, as ultimately a positive thing.
  'I feel proud,' she explains. 'No one on the boat gave up. It's something I never want to go through again, and, if I'm truly honest, I wish I hadn't gone through it, but I'm also thankful– I now know I'm strong enough to do a lot of things in this world. And it's brought me all the chances I have in my life.'

  The very act of swimming – arms slicing through the water, mind focusing on the force needed to lift up, and slightly above, the surface – has also helped the healing process. 'When I swim, I leave everything I'm thinking about, jump in the water and just think about my goals. It's the best feeling in the world.'
  It somehow seems fitting that Mardini's choice of stroke – Butterfly – is arguably the hardest to master. Your timing, body position, and speed all need to be perfect in order to swim efficiently. 'What can I say? I like challenges,' she laughs.
  Now living and training in Berlin, one of Mardini's first quests was locating the nearest swimming pool. An Egyptian translator she knew made contact with the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 swimming club and soon she found a new home to train in.

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  Just one year after fleeing Syria, Mardini competed at the Rio Olympic Games in the first-ever refugee team. On 6 August 2016, she won the opening heat of the 100m butterfly, beating her nearest heat rival by a second.
  Next up is training for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but in between travelling the world as an ambassador for refugees, meeting the likes of President Obama and Pope Francis, and fronting the new Under Armour campaign, she won't exactly be letting her hair down.
  Oh, and there's the small matter of her life being turned into a film. Back in March, Working Title Films – makers of Love Actually, the Bridget Jones series and Billy Elliot – announced that they had acquired the rights to develop and produce Mardini's story.
  Ask who she'd pick as leading lady, and Mardini doesn't skip a beat: 'Angelina Jolie or Emma Watson.'
  For a girl who took on the world and won? Sounds about right.

• The National - https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yusra-mardini-syrian-girl-who-swam-to-freedom-sheds-light-on-horror-of-refugee-crisis-in-book-1.719410

  Yusra Mardini: Syrian girl who swam to freedom sheds light on horror of refugee crisis in book
  Autobiography tells story of how she helped save fellow refugees stranded on dinghy before inspiring the world at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

  David Crossland
  April 7, 2018
  Updated: April 7, 2018 02:30 PM
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  Yusra Mardini, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, speaks to the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on April 27, 2017. Martial Trezzini / EPA Photo
  A Syrian girl who helped save fellow refugees stranded on an inflatable dinghy in the Aegean Sea, and later competed in swimming at the 2016 Olympics, has told her traumatic story in an autobiography to be published next month.
  Yusra Mardini, now 20, subsequently became the youngest ever UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, meeting Barack Obama and Pope Francis and inspiring other refugees with a simple message: never give up.
  Her book, titled Butterfly, an advance copy of which has been seen by The National, reveals how she and elder sister Sara paid smugglers $1,500 each to cross from Turkey to Greece, after they fled war-torn Damascus. They were packed into an overloaded four-metre dinghy that looked like a toy for tourists when they set off to reach Europe in August 2015.
  Fifteen minutes into the journey toward the Greek island of Lesbos, only 10 kilometres away, in choppy seas, the boat's engine died and with the occupants being tossed around helplessly by high waves, it seemed doomed to sink. The passengers began praying but one man, Muhannad, who could not swim, slid into the sea and clung to a rope that ran along the side of the boat, in an effort to lighten the load.
  Yusra and Sara, who had also swam internationally for Syria, also jumped into the water to try and stop the boat capsizing, clinging on to try and keep the flimsy dinghy headed in the right direction. The book tells how the sisters swallowed sea water while being buffeted by waves, their eyes stinging and muscles stinging while passengers - including families with small children - frantically used their mobile phones to try and summon help.
  _________________
  Read more
  Targeted by Assad, Syrian athletes fight to keep sport alive
  Syrian refugee swam to freedom - now she’s in the Olympics
  Seven years of war. A tragedy for Syria. A catastrophe for the world
  _________________
  They eventually made contact with the Greek coastguard who simply told them to turn back, but they could not reach the Turkish coastguard.
  The Mardini sisters clung on for three hours, swallowing sea water, their eyes stinging, muscles aching from the cold, and skin chafing from their life jackets. Yusra's legs seized up and the rope cut burns into her palms. Another, bigger boat filled with refugees sped past, ignoring their cries for help as the sun set and darkness fell.
  Suddenly, the engine sputtered back to life after repeated efforts to pull on the engine's cord. The sisters, who had been in the water longest while the male passengers took turns to help them, climbed back in the boat. Shivering with cold, Sara volunteered for one last stint in the water to reduce the dinghy's weight and they landed on a Lesbos beach.
  "Being a refugee is not a choice," said Yusra, revealing that she hates the word as it dehumanises people and evokes thoughts of borders, barbed wire, bureaucracy and humiliation.
  "Our choice is to die at home or risk death trying to escape," she added.

  Syrian refugee team swimmer Yusra Mardini, practices at the Olympic swimming venue in Rio. Michael Dalder / Reuters Photo
  Her story is being made into a feature film by Stephen Daldry, director of Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader. In Damascus, Ms Mardini had lived through four years of escalating conflict in which friends were killed by air strikes and shelling.
  She decided to leave after a rocket propelled grenade smashed through the ceiling of the building where she was training — she survived only because it failed to explode, and lay green and shimmering at the bottom of the swimming pool.
  Having reached Greece, the refugees encountered both kindness and hostility as they joined tens of thousands of fellow Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis on an odyssey on foot, by ferry, car, bus and train through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria. Their near-death at sea welded the group together and spurred them on towards their final destination, Germany.

  Gripping and movingly narrated, the book conveys the horror of refugees escaping conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan through names and faces.
  Ms Mardini recounts how they were particularly badly treated in Hungary, where smugglers cheated them each out of hundreds of euros and police humiliated them, locking them in a stable, hurling bad food over the gate and then taking them in a pitch-black van to a refugee camp.
  In the late summer of 2015, when the refugee crisis peaked, Ms Mardini was among tens of thousands stranded at Budapest train station just as Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to let them travel to Germany in a humanitarian gesture that temporarily suspended an EU rule that asylum claims should be handled in the country where migrants first arrive.
  Partly as a result of Ms Merkel's open-border policy, 890,000 asylum-seekers arrived in Germany in 2015. Ms Mardini and her sister were among them, reassured by the "Refugees Welcome" signs that greeted them as their train arrived at Munich station.
  They were taken to Berlin, where the story of their courage attracted increased attention. Ms Mardini, 17 at the time, resumed her swimming with her ultimate goal in mind: to compete in the Olympics. Helped by a German coach, she trained and came to the attention of the International Olympic Committee which was forming a refugee team to compete in the Rio games in 2016.
  In the book, she writes that she initially balked at the thought of swimming for a refugee team because she did not want to be defined as stateless, feeling it smacked of charity. But she changed her mind, convinced it was her chance to be a role model to others who have fled war, by showing it is possible to prevail.
  She was named in People magazine’s 2016 list of those changing the world, currently lives in Berlin and is training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It is unclear if she would swim for another refugee team, or for Germany or Syria.

• Vogue - https://www.vogue.com/article/former-syrian-refugee-olympic-swimmer-yursa-mardini-profile

  From Syrian Refugee to Olympic Swimmer: Yusra Mardini Goes for the Gold
  March 24, 2017 2:01 PM
  by Janine di Giovanni|photographed by Rineke Dijkstra
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  Photographed by Rineke Dijkstra, Vogue, April 2017
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  On a cold December morning in Berlin, a week before a terrorist attack in a Christmas market would kill twelve people, Yusra Mardini is getting ready for a competition at the Olympic training pool built for the city’s in­famous 1936 Games. (Adolf Hitler attempted to use them as a showcase for Aryan athletic prowess.) The temperature outside is frigid, and the water in the pool is not warm. Mardini, who competed in last summer’s Rio Olympics, is wearing a purple one-piece, her hair in a smooth ballerina bun. She plunges in and hits the surface as straight as an arrow.
  The market attack would be horribly ironic, given that Mardini had escaped the carnage in her native Syria fifteen months earlier to live, as she puts it, in “a peaceful country.” Her story is an extraordinary one: Having boarded one of the numerous boats smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean, she helped tow it to shore when it began to sink. Her athletic skills propelled her forward, saving numerous lives, her own included.
  Mardini was unpacking boxes in her new apartment in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf neighborhood, putting away pots and pans, when she turned on the news. She began to call everyone she knew to make sure they were safe. The attack saddened but did not shock her. For a nineteen-year-old who grew up during a devastating civil war, watching her country devolve from dictatorship to revolution to life with tanks and soldiers on the streets, the attack was a brutal reminder.” Her voice grows somber. “It made me feel awful. At home we saw so much.”

  Photographed by Rineke Dijkstra, Vogue, April 2017
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  Given President Donald Trump’s recent attempts at a so-called Muslim ban, halting the immigration of citizens from seven nations, including Syria, Mardini’s story of survival and triumph resonates more than ever. This is a young woman who, in the space of months, went from suffering in her war-torn homeland to meeting Pope Francis and President Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan and Ban Ki-moon while being feted at the U.N. and elsewhere. But Mardini wants to be more than a poster girl for refugee resilience; she hopes to go to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and win. “She wants gold,” says her mentor and former head coach, Sven Spannekrebs, who is more like a big brother to her.
  Out of the pool, Mardini is strikingly pretty, in black shorts and rhinestone earrings. She is smaller than most of the swimmers—five feet five inches tall and 119 pounds—munching on chocolate cake that one of her teammates’ parents made. Spannekrebs brushes the top of her head lightly and teases her about her height. “If she were an inch taller. . . ,” he says, meaning that taller swimmers are usually faster.
  Mardini rolls her eyes. It’s a joke she hears often. Despite her harrowing experiences, she exudes no sense of victimization or self-pity; instead, she is confident and self-assured. She looks you straight in the eye, as if to say, “I’ve escaped a war on a boat that was sinking. I can do anything.”

  What she lacks in height Mardini makes up for in drive and focus. The toughest part for her, she says, is the patience required to see results. “It’s what swimming is all about,” she says slowly, watching another swimmer’s event intently. “You have to wait to achieve goals. It can take a year to swim one second faster. You wait five years to get in your top form.”

  Photographed by Rineke Dijkstra, Vogue, April 2017
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  As a child Mardini dreamed of being a pilot, not a swimmer. At home in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus that had once been famous for its furniture production, her Muslim family led a comfortable life. Her mother, Mervat, was a physiotherapist, and her father, Ezzat, was a swimming coach who would take his children to the pool on Saturdays. “He just put us in the water,” Mardini says. Her older sister, Sarah, now 21, began to swim competitively, and Yusra followed suit. (She also has a younger sister, Shahed, now eight.)
  Mardini was in seventh grade when the protests against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, leading eventually to civil war. Like everyone else, she had no idea at that time that it would descend into a conflict that has so far killed some 470,000 people and forced nearly five million Syrians out of the country. At first, she hardly noticed what was going on. “I just kept swimming and going to school, trying to live like a normal kid” is how she puts it. Then things got worse. In 2012, there was an epic battle in Daraya between Assad’s government forces and opposition rebels. The town was destroyed and hundreds of civilians were massacred. Survivors were reduced to eating soup made from leaves. “After that, it was all different,” Mardini says. “Tanks, and electrical wires hanging down from their poles, everything ruined.”
  It became harder to get to the pool because of shooting outside. She and her family moved to a safer part of Damascus that year, but Mardini stopped training. She missed two years of practice; during that time, Spannekrebs says, she lost strength and got out of shape.
  “When she arrived in Germany as a refugee, we had to get her body fat down and build muscle to make up for those lost years in speed,” he explains.
  In Damascus, she began to yearn for a life beyond war. But her parents refused to discuss the notion of leaving. Like most families, they did not want to split up, yet it was impossible for all five of them to go to Europe. But by the summer of 2015, Mardini was begging. She wanted to swim again—and to lead a normal life. “I started saying, ‘You know what, Mom? I’m leaving Syria. If I die, I’m going to die in my wetsuit.’”
  One morning her mother came to her door. She was crying. She said that Yusra and Sarah could leave. Two male relatives had agreed to accompany them to Turkey and then onward. She had no idea where her daughters would end up. “It was the hardest thing for her to do,” Mardini says. “But she knew we had to go.”
  From Damascus, the sisters flew via Lebanon to Turkey. There they met with a smuggler and a crowd of other refugees trying to flee. They waited in a forest near a Turkish beach for four days without food, not sure when they would get their boat or when was the safest time to set off.
  “The moment had to be right; the waves had to be right; there had to be a time when there were no patrols,” she explains, to get to Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, a Greek island close to Turkey in the Mediterranean.
  In the forest, waiting, she tried to stay calm. She had her phone, her flip-flops, and a pair of jeans. “That’s it,” she says. She had no idea where she would go when she arrived in Greece. “We had a little bit of money, but not much. The trip out of Syria was meant to cost $1,500—but by the time we got to Germany, it was much, much more.”
  They left at dusk on the fourth day with eighteen others. Not far out from the Turkish shore—about 20 minutes into a trip that should have taken 45 minutes—the motor stopped. Yusra felt the boat lurch forward and then start to sink.
  Sarah and Yusra immediately climbed out into the cold water and began pulling the boat with a rope toward the island, briefly assisted by two other passengers. “We used our legs and one arm each—we held the rope with the other and kicked and kicked. Waves kept coming and hitting me in the eye,” she says. “That was the hardest part—the stinging of the salt water. But what were we going to do? Let everyone drown? We were pulling and swimming for their lives.”
  The sisters swam with the boat in tow for three and a half hours. “There was a boy, Mustafa,” Yusra recalls. “He was only about six. He was really funny, and when we were in the forest, we were playing with him and joking with him. I think when we were pulling the boat, we wanted to save everyone, but we were thinking the most about him.”
  They swam, rested for a minute, swam, rested, until they were able to drag the disabled boat onto Lesbos. The voyage was not over, though. “There was literally nothing on the other shore,” she recalls. “I had no shoes, as I had to kick my sandals off in the water. Someone on the road gave me a pair of shoes. But people were suspicious—I would not say they were friendly.” When she and the other refugees went into restaurants, the locals would not let them buy food.
  They slowly made their way overland through Europe. After getting stuck in the central Budapest train station when the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, decided to close the borders to refugees, the sisters managed to get to Germany. Once in Berlin, they spent six months in a camp there.
  “I was sleeping on a floor—but I was safe,” Mardini says. From an interpreter, they heard about a swimming club that trained young athletes: Wasserfreunde Spandau 04, one of the most important and well-regarded teams in Berlin swimming circles. They arranged to try out.
  The sisters still longed for home. “Every time we called to tell Mom we were OK,” Mardini says, fiddling with her earring, “she would just cry. ‘When can I see you?’” Her mother and younger sister are now in Berlin, living with Yusra in the new flat. Her father lives nearby.

  Water WorksMardini, in her adopted home of Berlin, trains at the Olympiapark Berlin, originally built for the 1936 Games.
  Photographed by Rineke Dijkstra, Vogue, April 2017
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  Spannekrebs, a gentle 36-year-old, knows very well the life of a teenage swimmer, having also trained with the Spandau team as a youth. When he watched the Mardini sisters try out for the first time, he was amazed at their tenacity.
  “It was clear these two sisters had trained seriously. Their technique was good.” He took them on and helped them get their papers to live in Germany. “I never expected we would go to Rio,” he says. “I just wanted to make their lives easier.”
  He reminds Yusra it took her a year to get into shape. “I had to give up McDonald’s,” she jokes, then grows serious. “But I kept thinking about all the years I had worked so hard.”
  “Her progress was fast,” Spanne­krebs continues. “She did everything I asked: wake up at 6:00 a.m. to go to the pool. Classes. Gym. Back in the pool.” Sarah, meanwhile, decided to give up competitions. “She loved swimming, but she just did not want to make a career of it,” Yusra says. Now Sarah works for an NGO in Greece helping refugees. “She is happier.”
  When Yusra gets tired, she thinks about Rio. In a blue blazer and tan slacks, a silk scarf around her throat, and wearing an enormous smile, she marched with her team, joining Olympic unity under the “refugee” umbrella.
  A few days later, Yusra raced to one minute, 9.21 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly. Her entry time, listed at 1:08.51, was about a second shorter. She didn’t swim fast enough to advance to the semifinal, but she won her preliminary heat, and the Refugee Olympic Team made history.
  For Yusra, it was the spirit that seized her as she competed alongside others who had escaped to build new lives. “It was amazing to watch her, really moving,” observes Jonathan Clayton from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), who was at the Rio Games to report on the refugee team.
  The transition from Brazil back to Germany wasn’t always easy: Some of the other swimmers had been surprised at her swift ascent to the Olympics. Yusra shrugs it off: There’s always competition in athletics, she says.
  When I visit her at home the next day, she’s in sweats, a T-shirt, and fluorescent-green sneakers. She proudly shows off the apartment. Everything is new; nothing remains from her life in Syria. She reminds me she took nothing with her when she fled.
  Since her story became known, Yusra has received multiple book and movie offers, and she and her team are considering their merits. Spannekrebs has concerns about the publicity around Mardini, which may be too much for a teenager straight out of the trauma of a war zone to adjust to. “I was thinking about stopping everything when we gave a press conference, right after the fighting in Aleppo got worse,” he says. “But she became more and more comfortable. I ask her if she wants to just be a normal teenager for a while, and she always says, ‘No! This is my life. I’m happy to be alive.’”
  Yusra has agreed to become a High Profile Supporter for UNHCR, with whom she is planning site visits, and is interested in becoming a motivational speaker. At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, she gave five speeches, including one at a U.N. World Food Programme event, and sat on a panel with the abruptly widowed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who talked about grief, loss, and resilience.
  “That was the high point of Davos for me,” Yusra says. “What a strong woman! Hearing her talk about moving on from grief. That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Moving on?”
  Hair and Makeup: Helena NarraSittings Editor: Anna Schiffel

• Teen Vogue - https://www.teenvogue.com/story/yusra-mardini-under-armour-will-finds-a-way-interview

  Yusra Mardini Stars in Under Armour “Will Finds a Way Campaign”
  The 2016 Olympian has her sights set on Tokyo.

  When we think of elite athletes, hard work and struggle are the often things we take for granted in their stories. Grueling hours of training, traveling to faraway places to compete, and pushing bodies to the limit are all part of the deal to reach the top of one's game. But 20-year-old swimmer Yusra Mardini seemingly redefined all of those things when, as a teenager fleeing Syria, she swam three hours helping her sister and two others push a boat full of refugees to safety after it started sinking on their journey across the Aegean Sea. After competing in the 2016 Olympics as part of Team Refugee, she's setting her sights on Tokyo 2020 and starring in Under Armour's new Will Finds a Way campaign alongside a group of trailblazing athletes.
  "I really love the message of Will Finds A Way," Yusra told Teen Vogue over email last week. "It is a message that is true to my story and I find it inspiring. I want people everywhere around the world, not just refugees, to see the campaign and to be inspired so they can follow their dreams and they can see that as athletes, we are also normal people who believed in themselves."

  Now living in Germany, Yusra divides her time among preparing for the next Olympics and acting as an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "My goal right now is to qualify for the 2020 Olympics and to inspire people around the world," Yusra said. "In one week for training, I usually swim 20 hours, spend 3 hours in the gym, and do 1.5 hours of physical therapy. I also do about 2 hours of athletics and spend lots of time eating, sleeping, and recovering in between." And that doesn't even include her travel. Recently she traveled to Sicily with the UNHCR to "hear refugee stories and hear their pain and hear what are they expecting and learn what we all can do to help them."
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  Through her work with the UN she's also working to break stereotypes and misconceptions about refugees. "I’m showing people around the world that I am a normal person who has dreams and who also can work hard like any normal person," she said. "I want to show people that as refugees, we are not poor but that we had to leave our countries because of violence and start a new life."
  And she has a message to anyone striving for something bigger than themselves. "For people who are trying to achieve their goals, I want them to know that they should search for the will inside of yourself and find something to love and to be ready to sacrifice a lot for it. When you find this thing, keep on holding until you find what you want. Don’t lose hope."

• Olympic Website - https://www.olympic.org/athlete365/es/noticias/the-inspirational-olympic-journey-of-refugee-swimmer-yusra-mardini/

  The inspirational Olympic journey of refugee swimmer Yusra Mardini
  marzo 25, 2016
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  Seven months after fleeing the Syrian capital of Damascus, Syrian refugee swimmer Yusra Mardini is hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and join the Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA).
  The 18-year-old, who represented Syria at the short-course World Championships in Turkey in 2012, fled the conflict in her home country along with her sister, Sarah, in August 2015, and now resides in Germany.
  Speaking at a news conference in Berlin today, Yusra said that the chance to reach the Olympic Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that not many others get, so she is determined to work hard to achieve her dream. “I want refugees to be proud of me. I want to encourage them”, she said.
  Yusra says that developing her talent as a swimmer was challenging in Syria. “The war was hard; sometimes we couldn’t train because of the war. Or sometimes you had training but there was a bomb in the swimming pool,” she said.
  Mardini is hoping to be a part of the ROA team – which will be treated at the Games like all the other teams of the 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) – after being created by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee earlier this month.
  Members of the ROA team must reach specific sporting standards and have official refugee status verified by the United Nations (UN), but will enjoy the same Olympic experience as the athletes of other NOCs, including their own welcoming ceremony at the Rio 2016 Olympic Village.
  “By welcoming the team of Refugee Olympic Athletes to the Olympic Games Rio 2016, we want to send a message of hope for all refugees in our world,” IOC President Thomas Bach said after the team was announced. “Having no national team to belong to, having no flag to march behind, having no national anthem to be played, these refugee athletes will be welcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem. They will have a home together with all the other 11,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees in the Olympic Village.”
  With between five and 10 places on the ROA team likely to be taken, Yusra is keen to inspire people across the world.
  She said: “I think first of all I want to do it for all the people; I want to inspire everyone. When you have a problem in your life, it doesn’t mean you have to sit around and cry like babies or something. The problem was the reason I am here, and why I am stronger and want to reach my goals. So I want to inspire everyone that [they] can do what they believe in their hearts.”
  While Yusra continues to work towards Rio 2016 selection, she’s complimentary of the support she’s received from the Olympic Solidarity Commission, which supports the NOCs. Yusra said: “Actually, Olympic Solidarity is supporting me a lot and in a big way; and I think that without their support, I don’t know, I’m not sure that I would be able to make it.”
  While Yusra is hoping to begin her Olympic journey at Rio 2016 and the city’s Olympic Aquatic Centre, her journey to Berlin included several weeks trekking across Europe.
  Having travelled to Lebanon and then Turkey, Yusra and several members of her family endured a potentially life-threatening passage to the Greek Island of Lesbos before beginning their travels across numerous European borders and arriving at the German capital.
  Soon after arriving in Germany, Yusra was introduced to Wasserfreunde Spandau 04, a swimming club based near her refugee centre, where she’s now aiming for Olympic qualification in a pool that was originally built for the Olympic Games Berlin 1936.
  Having endured the traumatic experience of fleeing her home country, Yusra has a clear ambition for the future: “I think my target is to qualify for the Olympics and to be an inspiration for everyone.
  “I want everyone to stay strong for their goals in life, because if you have your goals in front of your eyes, you will do everything you can; and I think even if I fail I will try again. Maybe I will be sad, but I will not show it, and I will try again and again until I get it. I want to show everybody that it’s hard to arrive at your dreams, but it’s not impossible. You can do it; everyone can do it. If I can do it, any athlete can do it.”

• Pro-Motivate - https://pro-motivate.com/speaker/yusra-mardini/

  Yusra Mardini Germany

  UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Heroic Champion of Refugees, 2016 Olympian

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  Yusra Mardini was part of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team that competed under the Olympic flag at the Rio Olympics.
  She became the youngest Goodwill Ambassador to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in April 2017 as a champion of refugees all over the world.
  She was rated as one of The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016 by TIME Magazine.
  She was listed among the 25 Women Changing the World in 2016 by People Magazine.
  She won the Laureus Sport for Good Award for Sporting Inspiration with the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team.
  Yusra and her sister Sarah were awarded the “Silent Hero” award at the Bambi Prize.
  She is the winner of Global Goals Awards in the category of ‘Girl Award’.
  She is the winner of Voices of Courage Award, Women’s Refugee Commission, New York.
  Yusra Mardini is a story of hope, strength, and resilience. She had a normal life and a promising swimming career when war broke out in Syria. Sensing the dangers to their lives, Yusra and her sister Sarah convinced their family to flee their country. Yusra crossed numerous hurdles – including dragging a dinghy full of refugees to safety across the freezing Aegean Sea for three and a half hours after its motor stalled – before entering Germany where she and her family finally found asylum. She has since competed in the Olympics, and resumed her schooling and training while going onto become the youngest Goodwill Ambassador to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the champion of refugees all over the world.
  As a swimmer in the capital of Syria, Damascus, Yusra Mardini represented her country at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships, taking part in the 200-metre medley, 200-metre freestyle, and 400-metre freestyle events respectively. Upon settling in Berlin, Germany, she continued her training in the hopes of qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games. Here, local swimming coach Sven Spannekrebs took her under his wings. In 2016, the IOC announced its first ever ‘Team Refugee‘ and nominated Yusra for the team – the rest, as they say, is history!
  Away from swimming, Yusra is fast learning German, the language of her host country, in an effort to continue her education. She is also speaking up for the refugee cause and has addressed world leaders on some of the biggest world stages including at the UN in New York and the World Economic Forum, in Davos, where she spoke of achieving an equitable world by 2030.
  In April 2017, Yusra was appointed the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
  Yusra Mardini will be the subject of a movie by the leading production company Working Title. A book telling Yusra’s remarkable story is also scheduled for 2018 as Yusra’s stock continues to rise.
  In 2018 Yusra has also become a role model for global sports brand Under Armour featuring in its international advertising campaign with Dwain ‘The Rock’ Johnson. (View Video)
  Yusra Mardini – Speaker
  Yusra has become a powerful voice for people across the globe who have been forced to flee their homes, and has addressed some of the world’s most influential people on this issue. Yusra’s fame has grown rapidly worldwide and she has already met and shared platforms with world and thought leaders, and other high profile advocates including President Obama, the Pope, Queen Rania of Jordan, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Cate Blanchett, Ben Stiller, Meg Ryan, will.i.am, Michael Johnson, Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize), Thomas Gottschalk etc. All at an age of just 19.
  She attended the World Economic Forum in Davos as the youngest participant ever and delivered five speeches.
  In her role as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, she represents and advocates on behalf of more than 65 million people on this planet who have forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution.
  Despite being just 19 years old, Yusra’s focus is as a professional athlete with the aim to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. She is also mixing swimming with her important international work as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador whilst studying in Berlin.
  Yusra Mardini’s Speaking Topics
  Yusra’s Extraordinary Story; the Syrian refugee who against all odds fulfilled her childhood dreams
  The UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador; representing and advocating on behalf of more than for 65 million forcibly displaced people across the world, including 10 million young refugees
  The Athlete and Olympian; training and competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics for the Refugee Olympic Team and preparing to swim at the Tokyo 2020 Games
  Taking Centre Stage; The teenager whose influence leads her to share the stage with world leaders from Obama to The Pope
  Yusra is able to take on a small number of conferences due to her swimming and educational schedule which takes priority. She presents fluently in English and Arabic and is semi-fluent in German which she is studying currently.
  Why Should You Invite Yusra to Speak?
  Yusra is in high demand worldwide as an inspirational speaker with a beautiful story. She speaks on the issues of refugees worldwide. Her recent talks at the WEF in Davos, the United Nations in New York, and Google Zeitgeist have added to this popularity. Yusra is keen to speak and convey her message at influential conferences and to organizations.
  To Book Yusra Mardini
  Should you wish to inquire about Yusra speaking at a conference or event, please contact ProMotivate™ Speakers Agency by phone or email with details of your request and we will be pleased to assist you. You can also fill a form here.

• Gulf News - https://gulfnews.com/sport/swimming/yusra-mardini-sometimes-you-have-to-risk-everything-1.2208954

  Yusra Mardini: Sometimes you have to risk everything
  Syrian refugee swimmer who survived Aegean crossing to make Rio vows to keep plight of displaced on agenda
  Published: 20:31 April 20, 2018

  By Ashley HammondSenior Reporter

  Dubai: Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini wants to change the perception of refugees with her continued participation in the pool.
  The 20-year-old from Damascus fled the Syrian civil war by boat with 18 others in 2015 but when the motor stopped working in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, she and her sister plus two others got out and pushed the dingy - which was only designed for six people and taking on water - for three hours until they reached Lesbos.

  From there, Mardini and her family traveled across Europe to Berlin, Germany, where they now reside.
  She still has family in Syria but her home was destroyed.
  That story earned the already accomplished Syrian national team swimmer, who had represented her country at the 2012 Fina World Championships in Turkey, a call-up to the Rio 2016 Refugee Olympic Team, where she finished 45th out of 46 swimmers in the 100-metre freestyle in 1:04.66, and 41st out of 45 in the 100-metre butterfly in 1:09.21.

  She now wants to get back to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to keep the plight of refugees on the agenda.
  “I want to spread a message to a lot of people not only refugees that we can do a lot in this world, you just have to believe in yourself and put everything into it. Sometimes you have to risk everything to get where you are or where you want to be,” she told Gulf News, in an interview set-up by Under Armour, who incorporated her story into their ‘Will Finds A Way’ campaign that launched on Thursday.
  “I want to change people’s perceptions of what a refugee is, because a lot of people think refugees are just people that don’t have money, are uneducated, and are coming to a place that is so fancy for them.
  “I just want to tell the world that no actually, we have money, we are educated and in Syria we were also doctors and engineers. Some people make refugees feel like they are much less than normal, but they are normal people who left their country because of violence, and who risked everything just to find peace and get a better chance in life.
  “I’ve no idea what will happen in the future,” added Mardini, who is also an ambassador for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR). “But I want to keep doing stuff for refugees and I’m going to keep swimming. If I am not swimming, I’m going to do something within swimming, I’m sure of that.”
  Given her ordeal, you would have thought she would want to do anything but swim, and she admits she still has flashbacks.
  “I can swim in a pool but I can’t swim in the sea until now, I just can’t. Every time I go to the sea, I remember all the people who died there, so it’s a really sad moment for me. I love the sea, but I also have a lot of fear from it.
  “It’s still kind of blurry,” she recalls of her crossing. “I can just remember me smiling for the kid because I didn’t want him to feel that we were dying. I felt like my life was flashing in front of my eyes.”
  That said, she vows to continue.
  “Swimming has been a huge part of my life because it saved my life on that trip, and then when I came to Germany it built up my community again and I got to meet a lot of people because of that.
  “It gave me discipline in my life and without it I would not have been here, I’ve been swimming since I was three-years-old and I don’t know any life without it, I hope I don’t get old soon and have to leave it.
  “To be part of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team was a great experience and I couldn’t have been any prouder and happier about that.”
  Does she hope to return to her country and represent Syria at the next Olympics?
  “To be honest that’s a really complicated matter, obviously I’d love to go back to my country in peace again and I’d love to represent my country, but also Germany because it has become my second home.
  “I’d also love to be part of the Refugee Olympic Team again if there is one, so if there is a flag for all of those things I would do it. The next few years hold a lot of surprises and I’m really excited for that.”

  Yusra Mardini factfile
  Born March 5, 1998
  Damascus, Syria
  Height 1.65m
  Weight 53kg

• Yusra Mardini Website - https://www.yusra-mardini.com/

  Yusra and her elder sister fled the Syrian war and set off on a perilous journey to find safety in Europe. In summer 2015, they travelled through Lebanon to Turkey before departing for Greece in an overcrowded dinghy.

  Fifteen minutes into the sea crossing, the boat’s engine failed. As a professional swimmer, Yusra was determined not to let any of her fellow passengers drown. Yusra, her sister and two others jumped into the waves and swam for three and a half hours in open water to stop their dinghy capsizing, saving the lives of 20 people.

  A year later, Yusra’s courage, determination and strong swimming skills were recognized by the International Olympic Committee and became a member of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team. Yusra competed at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, helping to represent 65 million displaced people worldwide.

  Since then, Yusra has addressed the United Nations General Assembly and met world leaders such as US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis. She has been presented with a number of prestigious awards and has been recognized for her work by Time and People magazines.

  Yusra now lives in Berlin, Germany and is concentrating on her professional swimming career. She aims to compete at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. Yusra is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and works to alter global perceptions of refugees. Her message of hope, determination and courage reminds us that those who flee their countries are capable of achieving great things.

Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian-My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph

Brenda Barrera
Booklist. 114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p13.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian-My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph.
By Yusra Mardini.
May 2018. 256p. St. Martin's, $26.99 (9781250184405). 797.2.

Syrian Mardini was passionate about swimming and dreamed of becoming an Olympian. Her dream came true, but, as she recounts in this moving memoir, to achieve it, she had to follow an unlikely path. Growing up, she was coached by her father, idolized Michael Phelps, and was inspired by Malala Yousafzai. Then everything changed when she learned from her girlfriend on the school bus that protests were erupting, and cities across Syria were under siege. In 2015, when Mardini was just 14 years old, she and her sister, Sarah, fled their homeland and embarked on a harrowing journey through Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Austria, and Germany, where they were granted asylum. Their ordeal included crossing the Mediterranean in a faulty boat, forcing them to jump overboard and swim for more than three hours in frigid water. With remarkable perseverance, the sisters navigated their journey, with the help of smugglers and a few journalists. In Germany she renewed her focus on swimming and was named to the IOC Refugee Athletic Team for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Butterfly is a powerful story of survival, inspiration, and hope with a resounding message: no one chooses to be a refugee; rather, horrific circumstances force ordinary people to take extraordinary measures to save themselves. This unforgettable memoir shines a spotlight on the refugee experience and the role sports can play in giving a voice to those affected by conflict throughout the world.--Brenda Barrera
YA: Teens who enjoyed I Am Malala will find another heroine in this inspirational memoir of a Syrian swimmer who became an advocate for refugees. BB.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Barrera, Brenda. "Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian-My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 13. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268008/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d416bfd9. Accessed 9 June 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A537268008

Mardini, Yusra: BUTTERFLY

Kirkus Reviews. (Apr. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Mardini, Yusra BUTTERFLY St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $26.99 5, 22 ISBN: 978-1-250-18440-5
The extraordinary tale of a Syrian woman's journey from her war-torn country all the way to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
In 2004, at the age of 6, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Mardini watched as American swimmer Michael Phelps won one gold medal after another at the Olympics. From that moment on, she wanted to do the same. It helped that her father was a swimming coach and that he pushed her and her sister, Sara, to swim daily at their local pool in Damascus. "Dad wants us to be the best swimmers. The very best. On earth. Ever," writes the author. "His expectations are astronomical, and we're expected to keep up....Dad has us both living like soldiers." As the years passed, Mardini won numerous competitions. Then the war began, and she and her family were forced to move multiple times to avoid the violence. As teens, the author and her sister fled the country, crossing from Turkey to Greece by sea, where they had to swim in rough seas when the boat engine failed, before making their way to Germany, where Mardini was able to begin training again. In this moving, action-packed first-person account, the author shares the details of her journey from novice swimmer to Olympian. She eloquently describes the physical, emotional, and psychological hardships of leaving her home country and entering a new realm with the label "refugee" on her back. She had very little money and no personal possessions except a few clothes and her phone. Mardini had to endure terror, extreme hunger, and deep despair, but she also celebrates the friendships forged during those moments and the inspiring drive that kept her focused on her childhood goal of being an Olympic swimmer and of being a voice for refugees everywhere.
A rousing, exciting true story of remarkable resilience.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Mardini, Yusra: BUTTERFLY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700494/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4178e734. Accessed 9 June 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700494

Barrera, Brenda. "Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian-My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 13. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268008/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d416bfd9. Accessed 9 June 2018. "Mardini, Yusra: BUTTERFLY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700494/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4178e734. Accessed 9 June 2018.

• London Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/09/butterfly-yusra-mardini-review-refugee-swimmer-syria-olympics
  Word count: 1191

  Butterfly by Yusra Mardini review – the refugee swimmer whose story swept the world

  Trained relentlessly by her father in Syria, Mardini helped steer a people-laden dinghy to safety, then competed in the Olympics
  Aida Edemariam
  Wed 9 May 2018 09.30 BST
  Last modified on Sat 12 May 2018 00.10 BST

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  ‘A refugee is a human being like any other’ … Yusra Mardini. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
  W
  hen, at the 2016 Rio Olympics, five women stepped on to the starting blocks for the first heat of the 100m butterfly, one stood out. While the others were identified with a name and their country’s flag, Y Mardini was identified by a white flag emblazoned with the Olympic rings. A beep, and they were curving into the blue pool. Mardini was slightly ahead for the first length, but lost momentum on the turn. She struggled to catch up to the Grenadian swimmer next to her – until the last few strokes, when, like her childhood hero Michael Phelps, she found a final burst of speed, and touched the wall first. The butterfly is a powerful, uncompromising stroke, and head-on pictures of Mardini in full flight only underline this: delicate face furious with focus, big shoulders lifting arms like wings. But what was more powerful, for millions watching, was the flag, and why she was competing under it: Mardini was swimming in her first Olympics as a member of the refugee team, travelling on a document that enabled her to go anywhere except her home country of Syria, from which she had literally swum away.
  Butterfly tells the story, in Mardini’s own (ghostwritten) words, of how she got to that starting block. It is a story full of so much incident, put so plainly and at such a pace, that the reader begins to feel just as Mardini does about her late teens: “Things happen so fast there’s no time to reflect.”

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  ‘Big shoulders lifting arms like wings’ … Yusra Mardini trains in Berlin last month. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
  The swimmer, now 21, was born in Damascus. Her father competed for the national swimming team until he had to do military service; all ambition was then transferred to his two daughters, Sara and Yusra. He threw them into pools when they were still tiny, fishing them out again under their mother’s horrified gaze. Later, he insisted they keep training even when Sara’s shoulders began to give under the strain, when Yusra had fainting spells, or ear infections, or, one day, when a weight-training machine, released unexpectedly by a team-mate, split her cheek open. “Dad wants us to be the best swimmers. The very best. On Earth. Ever,” writes Yusra, who, frightened, obeyed his autocratic requirements, swimming two hours a day under an unsmiling portrait of President Bashar al-Assad. Sara made the national team, and won a medal at the Pan-Arab Games; a picture is taken of her, with her medal – and Assad.

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  The Arab spring rumbles in the distance, comes closer and closer, until it spills into Syria. They wait for it to pass, “and while I wait, I swim,” Yusra writes. “Swimming is the best distraction.” But one day they turn into their street to find three tanks squatting at the end of it, and a soldier takes direct aim at their car. Not long afterwards, their father is arrested in a case of mistaken identity, hung upside down and beaten. Their home is flattened, and they are at the mercy of landlords who take advantage of their vulnerability to rack up rents. Mardini watches as the stadium where she trains is destroyed by a shell. Then one day, as she is swimming elsewhere, there is a sound of shattering glass, shouts – and in the suddenly clear water, an unexploded bomb. Sara already knows she must leave Syria; Yusra now realises it, too.
  Mardini is shocked at how all she is – Damascene, swimmer, girl becoming woman – is collapsed into one word: refugee
  So, leaving their mother and much younger sister in Damascus, they set out for Turkey and the Mediterranean. Their dinghy is turned back once by the Turkish coastguard. When they set off again the sea is no longer flat under the sun, but full of “churning teeth”. Fifteen minutes in, the engine fails. The boat is full and riding low so they throw anything out that they can. Then one of the men, a non-swimmer, bravely goes over the side, and hangs on. The dinghy lifts. Sara goes in, too, then Yusra. The sisters don’t physically pull it to shore, as has been widely reported – 10km (six miles), in high seas, with a heavy boat, is impossible even for two national-level swimmers – but they hold it steady, feeling for currents, keeping it on course, telling joje and smiling so as not to worry the six-year-old who is still on board. Night falls.
  Yusra was the sister who captured the public imagination, but Sara is really the hero here – plucky, confident, charismatic, a natural leader given to reckless irreverence in the face of muscled, humourless men abusing their scraps of power. Yusra’s arc, though, is so improbable, so narratively neat, that it is not surprising there’s a film, directed by Stephen Daldry, already in the works. She has met Barack Obama, and the pope.

  Film to follow teenager who crossed the Mediterranean and competed at Rio
  Read more

  The account of the sisters’ travels after they land on Lesbos is a litany of faithless smugglers, prisons, border after border, trains that stop in the middle of a European nowhere while passengers wait, hearts in mouths, for the police to crash in – a litany predictable, not just from the recent refugee crisis but from film after book after memoir throughout the 20th century. They could be Armenians, or Poles, or Jews escaping Germany – except this time, Germany is where they’re heading (they even, disconcertingly, find themselves billeted in a camp where Rudolf Hess was once held). The weekend they arrive in Germany they are two of 20,000 similar arrivals.
  Vastly grateful for individual kindnesses, Mardini is nevertheless shocked at the degree to which all that she is – Damascene, swimmer, girl becoming woman – is collapsed into one word: refugee. She fears that she is only competing at the Olympics out of pity. Yet she agrees to race in order to demonstrate her individuality – and that of all other refugees. To say, on bigger and bigger stages: “A refugee is a human being like any other.”
  • Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale is published by 4th Estate. Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph is published by Bluebird. To order a copy for £16.14 (RRP £18.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.

• Serendipitous Reads
  https://serendipitousreads.com/2018/05/21/review-butterfly-by-yusra-mardini-syrian-civil-war/
  Word count: 855

  REVIEW: Butterfly by Yusra Mardini
  Posted on May 21, 2018 by Alyssa Grace

  Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph by Yusra Mardini
  My rating: 5 of 5 stars
  Length: 288 pages
  Release date: 15 May 2018
  Amazon UK | Amazon US
  Yusra Mardini fled her native Syria to the Turkish coast in 2015 and boarded a small dinghy full of refugees bound for Greece. When the small and overcrowded boat’s engine cut out, it began to sink. Yusra, her sister and two others took to the water, pushing the boat for three and a half hours in open water until they eventually landed on Lesbos, saving the lives of the passengers aboard. Butterfly is the story of that remarkable woman, whose journey started in a war-torn suburb of Damascus and took her through Europe to Berlin and from there to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Yusra Mardini is an athlete, one of People magazine’s twenty-five women changing the world, a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and one of Time Magazine’s thirty most influential teens of 2016.

  “I know I’m not Malala. I didn’t grow up wanting to change the world. I just wanted to swim.”

  Where to start? Butterfly is an incredible, moving story that’s going on my all time favourites shelf. I don’t normally read from the biography/memoir genre, but a quick Google search of Yusra Mardini convinced me that I should read this book. Actually reading it has changed my mind; I now think that everyone should read this book.
  I can barely remember a time when war in Syria wasn’t a given in the news, but as Yusra’s experience and the experiences of thousands of people like her show, the transition from peaceful, modern society to lethal war zone is much more plausible than we imagine. The change is scarily evident in the many available photos of precise locations before and after shelling:

  Like these photos, Butterfly is a reminder of that simple and elusive truth as stated by Yusra: “Being a refugee is not a choice. Our choice is to die at home or risk death trying to escape.” Most of us have probably heard something along those lines many times, but no amount of repetition could compensate for hearing from beginning to end the real story of just one person. For me, it was like having a bucket of ice-cold water dumped on my face. The migrant crisis may be too complicated for me to grasp in entirety, but the candid narrative of one teenager’s life isn’t. No one could read Yusra’s story in full and still believe that she and her peers ought not have left Syria.
  Yusra’s life alone is captivating material for a memoir, but it has to be said that Butterfly reads even better thanks to plain old good writing. I personally think it was a great choice to use the relatively unconventional style that it does. Most noticeably, the whole book is written in present tense, giving it the feel of a novel. At many points, Butterfly honestly reads like a contemporary YA thriller–which really isn’t a good thing, because ideally young people wouldn’t have bombs falling on them, but does speak to the immediacy of Yusra’s voice and the power of her experiences.
  Another quality of Butterfly that I very much appreciate is how much Yusra pushes back against the sensationalisation of her story. Thanks to its surreal, almost cinematic potential, the famous boat anecdote has been warped beyond recognition by various media outlets. Compared to the frank account in Yusra’s memoir, even Wikipedia as of May 2018 gets it wrong. She and her sister did not, in fact, push a boat for three hours to Greece. In her own words, “only superwoman” could do that. The truth is rather less miraculous and no less inspiring.

  “It’s just easier to laugh than to cry. If I cry, I’ll cry alone. But if we laugh, we can do it together. I guess no one knows how strong they can be until it’s their turn to deal with tragedy.“

  The peril of bombs falling on Damascus, the terror of a dead motor out on the open sea, the chaos at Budapest Keleti train station that you likely remember seeing on the news–it’s all captured in stunning proximity. A thoroughly edited memoir may not tell all of its subject’s personality, but Yusra’s story feels so accessible and her thoughts so down-to-earth, I unequivocally rooted for her. I’ve got my fingers crossed for big things at Tokyo 2020. To end on a good note with Yusra’s declared mission:

  “I have a message to spread: that being a refugee is not a choice. That we too can achieve great things.“

  *Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book! All opinions represented remain my own.*

• Emma's Chapter
  https://emmaschapter.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/butterfly-from-refugee-to-olympian-by-yusra-mardini-arc-review/
  Word count: 920

  Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian by Yusra Mardini | ARC Review
  April 21, 2018Emma's Chapter
  Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope, and TriumphButterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph by Yusra Mardini

  My rating: 4 of 5 stars

  Read: April 15 – April 19 2018
  Release Date: May 22 2018

  I know these are dark times and people want heroes. But I’m just an ordinary girl. A swimmer

  Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph follows the story of Syrian Yusra Mardini as she and her sister left their home country of Syria and took the long and dangerous journey to Germany to seek safe haven for themselves and their family. A journey which eventually took Yusra to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

  I am not a reader of non-fiction/memoirs first of all. I’ve maybe read 2 not including this one. But, I was invited to read this story from the publishers via NetGalley and saw no reason why I shouldn’t. The circumstances Yusra and her sister Sara have been through were enough to make me want to read this story. I don’t follow too much sport, but I do watch the Olympics and that was when I first heard about Yusra and her journey. This book shows a powerful insight into the how and why of many refugees.

  The first thing that surprised me about this book was just how much of Yusra’s life we learn about. It begins with her early swimming training when she was 6-ish years-old all the way up to the Olympics and what her and her sister are doing now. It’s a much larger time-span than I was expecting but when you put the book into perspective it makes so much sense. You see the security and normality of Yusra and her family’s life before the war. Go to school, hang out with friends, swim training, family dinners, watching the news and the Olympics. It shows straight away just how normal life was in Syria before everything changed.

  This is something that I think will shock a few people when they read this. A lot of people are living in their own bubble and the only things they see of other countries and cultures are the things shown on the news or tabloids or internet etc. and that, 9 times out of 10, isn’t half of the full picture. Yusra even mentions this a little by stating that people from Germany were shocked to discover a Syrian refugee had a phone or knew about the internet and technology. There are multiple times in the book when Yusra looks through Facebook and that is something you would not expect or think someone leaving their country because of war would do. Even thought that’s definitely something I would do, so maybe we should expect it.

  The book is very direct and honest and definitely doesn’t sugar-coat any of the events that Yusra and her friends went through. It’s very informative and slightly heart-breaking. Neither Yusra or Sara want to leave Syria. They don’t want to leave their country and home. However, it eventually comes to; leave or wait for a bomb to land on your head. That is no way to live your life and it is gut wrenching that so many people have had this choice forced upon them. It’s tragic, but easy to read and flows nicely from one event to the next. Not the tempo I’m used to, but I managed. The story doesn’t need any flash or over-selling, it simply needs telling.

  I do have one light problem. That problem is less to do with the book as it is the way this story has been told in the media. Yusra did not do this journey by herself. She did not pull a boat from Turkey to Greece by herself. She was never without her sister Sara. The majority of the time she was in a group of around 20 or more. Even the Goodreads synopsis is annoying. The first thing it says..

  The inspiring story of how one woman saved fellow refugees from drowning—and how she went on to become an Olympic swimmer

  She did not do it by herself!
  Do not ignore the other survivors!
  Do not ignore Sara!
  Do not ignore other people’s struggles or stories or journeys!
  Do not push other people out of their story just to make one person seem better!
  It is so disrespectful.

  In all, Butterfly is an exceptionally honest and eye-opening, but it is not unique. I understand the importance of Sara and Yusra’s story. It went mainstream. But they are not the only refugees. Not from Syria. Nor from multiple other countries. There are thousands of people who have gone through the same or worse or who are still in Syria. I understand how eye-opening this story is to people around the world and it is a story I think everyone should read, but there are so many more. Do not settle for one. Do not think one is enough. Because it isn’t.

  I was invited to read this book by the publisher via NetGalley, this does not change my opinion of the book.

• 
  https://rorotbd.wordpress.com/2018/04/28/arc-butterfly-from-refugee-to-olympian-my-story-of-rescue-hope-and-triumph-by-yusra-mardini-review/
  Word count: 846

  April Wrap Up – Come here often?
  May 10, 2018 at 9:43 am
  ARC: Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph by Yusra Mardini – Review
  I would like to thank Bluebird/Pan Macmillian and Yusra Mardini for sending me this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

  Expected Publication: 3rd May 3018 by Pan Macmillian/Bluebird

  The inspiring story of how one woman saved fellow refugees from drowning–and how she went on to become an Olympic swimmer.

  When young Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini realized her boat’s engine shut down as she was traveling from Syria to Greece with other refugees, there was no hesitation: she dove into the water. Surfacing, she heard desperate prayers and sobbing from the passengers in the sinking boat above her. Between the waves, her elder sister Sarah screamed at her to get back on the boat. But Mardini was determined. She was not going to let Sarah do this alone. Grabbing the rope with one hand, she began kicking up the black water, inching the boat towards the distant shore.

  This bold act of bravery saved the lives of a boatload of refugees heading to Turkey from Syria. After her arrival in Greece, Mardini, focused and undeterred, worked toward a lifelong goal: to compete in the Olympics. She succeeded, and competed in 2016 on the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio de Janeiro.

  Butterfly tells her story, from Syria to the Olympics to her current work with the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador. Mardini is eager to tell her story in the hopes that readers will remember that refugees are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, chased from their homes by a devastating war. In today’s political climate, this story is guaranteed to inspire and educate readers from every background.

  I did not expect Butterfly to touch my heart the way that it has. This Non-Fiction/memoir book which is based on real events is an incredible and moving read. My eyes have been firmly opened to the terror, not only in Syria, but other countries throughout the world that are experiencing similar events.
  I am so thankful that this book came my way.
  Opening with Yusra, as well as her sister Sara and other refuges, who are helplessly stranded in the ocean, they are in desperate need to cross from Turkey to Greece. The boat’s engine has failed and there is no one able to repair it. Yusra and Sara are both strong, experienced swimmers and find themselves in the dark depths of the ocean pulling the boat to shore.
  The prologue gave me chills. I was not expecting the opening to be as strong and in your face as it was. I could not begin to imagine how everyone on the boat felt during this awful time.
  We are taken to the beginning of Yusra’s life growing up in Syria. We learn that her father is a avid swimmer and this was how Yusra learned to swim and eventually, as she grew older, developed a dream to one day compete in the Olympics. Her determination and passion to make her dream a reality is strong throughout, she never gives up.
  Amongst all the violence, destruction and death, she tries to have a normal life – like so many others. There is hope that the war will end and life will be as it once was. Yusra explains that everyone led a normal life before the war, taking down assumptions and prejudices that people have about Syria. Her words moved me. We only think of Syria as the conflict that it is now, heavily influenced by the media and encouraged to believe what they show us.
  It was hard to read the many struggles that were faced after the boat incident. It is a long gruelling road before they can find salvation and at times it feels that they will never find peace. I believe that it is written this way, from an emotional perspective, to make the many like myself who have never known conflict like this or felt fear about their home being bombed or losing friends and family, think and reflect on what is happening out in the world.
  Yusra writing style is very much to the point, no sugarcoatting or beating around the bush. She wants to get the message across and she does this perfectly. The directness of her words hit me everytime.
  I admired not only Yusra’s strength but all the millions of people living the same nightmare and how they manage to persist when all seems lost. I was engrossed in this book – it’s definitely a story that you cannot put down because it happened and is still happening to millions of people.
  You must read this book because you will learn something from it. Your eyes will open wide and you will be glad that you followed Yusra’s story.
  5/5

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