Refugee Olympic Team swimmer Yusra Mardini wins butterfly heat

On Saturday, she swam her heart out again and won her race – a 100 meter butterfly swimming heat, posting a time of 1:09:21.

On Saturday, Yusra Mardini swam to victory during her first heat for the women’s 100-meter butterfly swimming competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This is for the first time refugees were recognised as a separate team with International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, saying, “We do not just tolerate diversity, but welcome it as an enrichment to our unity”.

About two years ago, Mardini was swimming to save her life and others.

Mardini’s remarkable 25-day journey took her to Beirut in Lebanon, across the Aegean Sea and finally to Germany. Mardini lives in Berlin, where she trains at Wasserfreunde Spandau 04.

She and her sister jumped into the water and began pushing their boat towards the Greek coast.

“When I was in the water there was fear”.

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With the eyes of at least three billion people around the world on them tomorrow night, “you can show your strength, your capacity to run higher, to run faster, and become stronger”, he said.

The only way to get the overcrowded boat carrying 20 refugees to shore, was to pull it. “You don’t think of anything else”.

Hundreds have died crossing the Mediterranean from Turkey as they tried to reach Europe after fleeing conflicts and political turmoil in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Mardini’s time of one minute and 9.21 seconds did not see her through to the semi-finals, but she savoured the experience.

“Competing with all these great champions is exciting”.

Five of the athletes originally are from South Sudan, two are from Syria, two are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and one is from Ethiopia. Mardini is also entered in the 100m freestyle. The Olympic International Committee was right to allow this exception to draw attention to an issue that is affecting countries through the Middle East and Africa, with profound flow-on effects around the world.