The story of Yusra and Sara Mardini made headlines in the international press in the spring of 2016 when the International Olympic Committee announced the creation of a new delegation in the games that would be held in Brazil: a team of refugee athletes. Yusra was among the 43 candidates vying for one of the spots to officially compete that summer and was one of the ten athletes selected.

Several producers contacted them, interested in acquiring the rights to their story for the screen, offers that the sisters rejected one after another, because Yusra had seen a seemingly impossible dream come true and did not want to be distracted by external stimuli. 

"No one will be interested in your story after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics," a producer told her then. Time proved him wrong, because six years later, in 2022, Netflix released a movie based on the personal odyssey of these Syrian refugees, and now, the Paris Olympics have once again sparked interest in the title. 

An incredible true story

When the Mardini family's house was destroyed in the Syrian civil war, sisters Yusra and Sara decided to flee. In August 2015, they embarked on a 25-day journey through Lebanon, Turkey, and Greece, passing through the Balkans and Central Europe, until reaching Germany.

On that journey, not only did they manage to evade border authorities before reaching their destination to seek asylum, but also death. The boat that was supposed to take them from Greece to Germany was designed to accommodate 8 people, but there were 18 on board and due to overload, the engine stopped working in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

Completely adrift, the two sisters decided to jump into the water and pull the boat to Lesbos along with two other people who could also swim. After a three and a half-hour journey, the group managed to reach the shore safely. From there, Yusra and Sarah traveled on foot to Germany. 

As soon as she settled in the refugee camp on the outskirts of the German capital, Yusra inquired about the nearest swimming pool to resume the training she had to interrupt with the onset of the Syrian civil war. She didn't take long to catch the eye of the coaches at the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 club in Berlin, who included her in their training group.

A few months later, Yusra was training to compete with the first refugee team in the Olympics, a feat that was unthinkable when she was in the middle of the sea swimming for her life. Yusra Mardini competed in the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly in Rio de Janeiro and did so again in the Tokyo games, where she decided to compete again with the refugee team despite qualifying for the Syrian delegation.

The Netflix movie

In The Swimmers, the Mardinis are portrayed by Nathalie and Manal Issa, real-life sisters, and Yusra served as a stand-in for the swimming scenes of the actress who plays her. Sally El Hosaini directs and co-writes the script along with Jack Thorne (The Disappearance of Kiri, The Virtues, His Dark Materials). 

"The story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini represents one of the few happy endings among the Syrian refugee community, so marked by horrible stories of pain and suffering," said the film's director in an interview with Forbes, where she revealed that she introduced some fictional elements to "also represent the 99% of refugees who do not have that happy ending."

Where are the Mardini sisters now

Although the media at the time turned the Olympic swimmer into a symbol of heroism and resilience, the sisters experienced many xenophobic and rejection experiences until they reached where they are now, and they acknowledge that at first, it was difficult for them to accept the label of refugees because it is associated with a lot of discrimination. 

"We hope everyone understands that it's easy but necessary to help refugees. There is enough space on this planet for everyone.

The Mardini sisters

The sisters followed different paths after arriving in Germany. Sara stopped swimming due to a shoulder injury and returned to Greece to help other refugees as an activist. 

Yusra continued swimming professionally at the Tokyo games and became the youngest ambassador of the UN refugee agency. Her work as an activist will be combined this year with that of a presenter at the Paris Olympics, a role in which she debuts alongside Eurosport. 

* This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence