Escaping war-torn Syria and swimming across sea: Yusra Mardini's journey to Olympics

Just as the sun set over the capital city of Rio on 6th August 2016, an 18-year-old swam to win her preliminary heats in the 100m butterfly category with a largely humble timing of 1:09:21. But even then, she got out of the pool with the brightest of smiles. This was the smile of Yusra, meaning "Success" in Arabic. Success over the darkest days of her past.

Yusra was brought up in a disciplined Muslim family in a suburb called Darayya in Damascus, Syria. Her mother Mervat, a physiotherapist and her father, Ezzat, a swimming coach. Well, her first swimming coach. Swimming at the local pool became the weekend pass-time for Yusra and her elder sister Sarah, who had started swimming competitively even before Yusra did.

Yusra fell in love with the planes flying thousands of feet above her in the Syrian skies and always wanted to be a pilot. Little did she know that destiny had subterranean plans in store for her.

It was 2011 and little Yusra had just started 7th grade when protests started in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad's government. Although the protests gathered pace, the routine for Yusra remained largely unchanged. School and pool remained her only regular visits during the week.

But on an ill-fated day in 2012, Darayya witnessed a barbaric battle between the civil forces and the rebels. The town was destroyed leaving hundreds of civilians massacred on the streets. As Yusra recalls, there were tanks on the streets, wires hanging from the poles and constant shooting went on for days. People were forced to survive on soups prepared from leaves.

Survivors started to flee the town and the Mardini family did not stay put. They left Darayya to find shelter in a safer part in Damascus. But the pool visits stopped. As her former coach Sven Spannekrebs recalls, Yusra lost 2 years of pool-time due to the Syrian civil war.

The civil war spread like a vicious fire taking lives of more than half a million Syrian nationals. It had become inevitable for the Mardinis to flee their motherland.

"If I die, I'm going to die in my wetsuit", Yusra says when deciding to escape the war-stricken nation.

On a painful morning, a weeping mother with a heavy heart told both the sisters to leave Damascus as soon as possible along with two male relatives who will be accompanying her to the coastal town of Izmir in Turkey. They flew to Turkey via Beirut and waited in a forest near the coast for four days without food. Waiting for an appropriate time so as to avoid being caught in international waters.

Along with the sisters there were around 18 other Syrians trying to find refuge in a peaceful European nation. They set off on a motorboat from Izmir for the Greek island of Lesbos. But the ride couldn't go more wrong. 20 minutes into the ride, the motor stopped and the boat holding almost double the safe capacity risked being capsized into the cold Aegean Sea. None but three of the passengers could swim.

It is pretty natural for a teenager to give into such circumstances. But Yusra didn't. Along with her sister and a fellow passenger, Yusra dived into the Aegean waters and tried to support the boat under the water on their shoulders. The ride supposed to last 45 minutes, lasted more than 3 hours and eventually Yusra reached Lesbos. A 17-year-old swimming across the Aegean Sea with the load of 17 more passengers on her shoulder. Yusra became the real-life Bahubali for her refuge-seeking friends.

The odyssey continued for the group through Macedonia, Hungary, Serbia, Austria until they reached a refugee camp in Germany. Yusra spent 6 months in the camp sleeping on the floor and eating whatever and whenever something was available. Many European countries had already closed their borders to refugees.

Yusra found a swimming club, Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 and a well-respected coach in Sven Spannekrebs who once trained with the Spandau swimming team as well.

Sven noticed Yusra had the knack of clocking quick times across the pool but lacked the swiftness of a professional swimmer owing to the lack of pool-time due to the civil war. Sven created a schedule specially meant for Yusra to shed muscle fat and gain those lost seconds under water. Yusra still jokes about how she had to sacrifice McDonald's during her recuperation.

"Her progress was fast," Sven was quoted as saying to the Vogue. "She did everything I asked: wake up at 6:00 a.m. to go to the pool. Classes. Gym. Back in the pool."

She was among the elite ten who were chosen among 43 refugees to participate at Rio under the Olympic flag. Yusra stood proudly in her blue blazer. Still a chubby 18-year-old teenager with eyes shining as bright as pretty diamonds, hiding her agony behind that childish smile.

Eventually her time of 1:09:21 was not enough for a semi-final spot but she had inspired millions around the globe already. Just a little less than a year ago, she swam across the Aegean saving more than a dozen lives. Here she was, swimming to protect millions of dreams which get shattered due to inhuman adversities across the globe.

She went to become a goodwill ambassador at the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Eventually she met Ban-Ki-Moon, US President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and continues to work for the welfare of pain-stricken refugees across the world.

Now a 23-year-old, she trains as passionately as the teen Yusra at the Olympiapark in Berlin, constructed for the 1936 games by the Nazis. Mervat and Ezzat moved to Berlin and live with Yusra while Sarah continues to help refugees in Greece.

When questioned about her tenacity, she speaks how she got motivated by sharing the panel with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was recently widowed.

"What a strong woman! Hearing her talk about moving on from grief. That's what it's about, isn't it? Moving on?" Yusra says.

The story of Yusra Mardini is not short of a fairy tale. Her journey from Syria to Germany in order to pursue her dreams, is capable of inspiring a million more athletes to look beyond the horizon while striving towards success.

We are so habitual to cribbing about the ills around us that we forget how people like Yusra succeed with nothing but faith in their abilities. When she dives into the pool in Tokyo, I'm sure she will continue to carry hopes of millions of anguished civilians. An hope to live a life bereft of blood-thirsty violence.