yusra mardini Flashcards
path to germany
Syria, Lebanon, turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany
arab spring
all for democracy w/in arab nations…5 yrs after, some nations failed (remained dictatorship) or became restricted democracies
father
Ezzat
was her and sara’s first coach…lived vicariously through his kids
- neglectful of wellbeing in favour of training i.e. ear infection, injury
however, taught them resilience
michael phelps
her hero, she watched him in the 2004 olympics
saw him in 2016 rio
hijab
around puberty, girls decide if they want to practice hijab
- cannot swim bcs of modesty
she and sara did not
- accpeted, but a bit of social taboo
damascus
home city, forced to flee/move frequently bcs of syrian war
fortunate to have money to pay high rent
why did yusra leave swimming
there was a bomb in the pool, it wasn’t worth her life
ezzat was working in jordan
she wasn’t picked to go international comp
mom
mervat
why did yusra return to swimming
determination to become an olympian
go to europe for a future
sara mardini
quit swimming because of shoulder injury, but swam recreationally
- some jealously for yusra
- also hard bcs their father strongly valued swimming…conflict w him
wanted to join friend in hanover
the sea
cousin nabih
in sea on raft w 20 people, engine died
muhannad and bassam took turns in the water to lighten the load
yusra and sara in the water for 3 hours to prevent capsizing
made it to greece
steven
belgium journalist
journey to hungary
serbia –> hungary
met photographers lam and magdalena
- lam a refugee from iraq to france
hid in corn fields
hotel berlin: smugglers held refugees and forced to pay w/o ever helping cross border
- fled after seeing news abt syrians who suffocated in a truck
journey to austria
from hungary, via train
some trains never arrived, multiple days of waiting
girl on their train reported them bcs thought they were terrorists
- would up w UN refugee agency
vienna and berlin
needed to apply to asylum, get to hanover
met sven spannekrebs, told them to stay in berlin for swimming and education
didn’t like charity from sven and refugee facilities
held back in school
refugee olympic team
when it was announced, they all but named yusra
- immediate social media attention
didn’t want to join the team bcs didn’t like refugee title
- proud, wanted to swim for syria
- wanted to be there bcs of her skills
sven said she should go bcs olympics is her dream
why did she join the team
refugees are humans too
- motivated by father and social media messages to her to be a voice for refugees
friend rami from demascus made it onto the ROT
“the boat story”
reporters embellished it, or got it completely wrong
often ignored that it was sara’s story too
