Just Keep Swimming

Competing in the 100m freestyle and butterfly events at the Rio Olympics was a surreal experience for Yusra Mardini – a year earlier, she’d used those swimming skills to save herself and others from drowning in the Aegean sea, when the boat in which they were fleeing syria began to sink. in this extract from her book, Butterfly: from refugee to olympian, my Story of reScue, Hope and triumpH, the now goodwill Ambassador for the un Refugee Agency shares her hopes for her future, and that of refugees the world over

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‘Olympian tag. Refugee. After Rio, I learnt to embrace that word. I don’t see it as an insult. It’s just a name for ordinary people who were forced to flee their homes. Like me, like my family.

‘Mum, Dad and Shahed now have refugee status too. We all want to stay in Berlin. We’ve been told we can stay in Germany until 2019. After that, we hope our residency permits will be extended if necessary. I trust Germany to do the right thing. We’re happy to be living in peace. But it’s tough to start over again and build a new life from scratch. Our lives are very different here. Each one of us has to find their own way.

‘Shahed has it easiest because she’s the youngest. She’s now 10 years old and is growing into a tough, clever young girl. She’s adapted quickly to her new home and she babbles away in fluent German with her many native school friends. We’re all happy for her, of course. But sometimes we worry about her losing her Syrian identity if we stay in Germany long-term.

‘Life is harder on my parents. Mum is learning German, but has found it difficult to make friends. Many of the other refugees on her German course are depressed, and the language barrier stops her from reaching out to locals. She misses family back in Syria – my Grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins [who are] still in Damascus. But she’ll be okay. Mum’s a fighter.

‘Dad is learning German too, but progress is slow. He often gets frustrated about not being able to coach. Last year, he did a six-month training programme and got a German life guarding certificate. But his German isn’t good enough yet to work. He used to talk sometimes about going back to Syria and I’d tell him we’re better off where we are for now. Now he’s more settled, and bit by bit things are getting better for us all.