Yusra Mardini survived the unthinkable. Then her dream of swimming in the Olympics became a reality and her life a movie.
At the age of just 17, she fled her war-torn homeland of Syria with her sister, both swimmers in professional training.
As the small boat she was on sank in the middle of the Mediterranean with 18 other refugees, Yusra and her sister jumped into the water and pulled the boat to safety. After reaching European shores and finding her last refuge in Germany, she returned to training and eventually competed in the Rio and Tokyo Olympics.
Her story was even made into a movie on Netflix, “The Swimmers” in 2022. Soon after, she and her sister spoke to Marie Claire Greece for the first time about their refugee odyssey, while both on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in 2023.