Swimming to Safety

For this activity, listen to the podcast of Yusra Mardini, or read her story on her personal website.

On your blog, retell the story of this amazing young woman from Syria.

Once upon a time there was a talented swimmer Yusra Mardini. Yusra wasn't much of a fan of swimming, when Yusra's mates would be swimming she would be standing on the side trying to look at the bottom of the pool. When Yusra thought of getting into the swimming pool her heart beat was beating fast. But it didn't mean that she was scared she was eager to get in the pool Step by step she was brave to dip her toes and sank her head into the water. And finally she was swimming not just swimming but keenly swimming. Her father and older sister trained Yusra really well because she was winning competitions. Yusra wasn't afraid of the water because she could barely remember how she was scared a long time ago, now the pool is her favourite place because she imagines that she has been teleport-ed to another dimension. When Yusra always swims all she could hear was the noise of her heart beat, swimming made her not worry about her problems. When Yusra was 13 she had difficulty that even swimming couldn't help. Her country was at WAR! Yusra's country president  Asar didn't want there government to be a dimarcrisy. People gathered in the streets and the government killed them by shooting them all. Brave people protested and violence got bad, by the time Yusra was 13 the government changed into a full blown civil war. Yusra and her family listened to bad news every single day because people were dying. The fighting hit Yusra's neighbor hood and it was bad her and her family could hear machine guns shooting everywhere. One day Yusra and her dad were walking to the gym so Yusra can train and do some swimming lessons but when they have arrived her and her dad saw gun shooting holes on the ceiling of the building making dust fall into Yusra's pool. Yusra's mum had a plan to well Yusra's mum was explaining they could see her tears rolling down her face. So she had some relatives giving a offer to take Yusra and her older sister with them on a dangerous trip to Europe. It was unclear for Yusra because they would go everywhere with the whole family but it was only her and her older sister's turn to go out by them selves. And they were depending on them both, they went on the boat travelling they went further until the motor of the boat broke down because the limit of the boat was 14 but they went over and took 20 people. Only 4 of them could swim including the 2 sisters Yusra and her older sister. The four of them pushed and tried hard to look for shore so they can end up on that island. Yusra saw a little boy on shore younger than her own little sister so she tried making the little boy laugh so he doesn't think that they're going to die. The 4 have been pulling and pulling the rope until they saw land all of there feet were so saw and they were struggling but never gave up. When they finally made it to shore which was North the 4 swimmers fell straight away to the ground. They went from country to country trying to cross borders, they all went to the destination by surviving and being brave. Yursa found a swimming club at the area and decided to sign up so she did. And the best thing was that the club was one of the best swimming clubs in the area. Yursa was the best swimmer and she had won a lot of medals. She is now a proud Olympian! And her future is what she had wished all along so the moral of this story is to chase your dreams and be in it to win it!