{"id":1413766,"date":"2023-04-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1413766"},"modified":"2023-04-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T09:00:00","slug":"syrian-refugee-yusra-mardinis-story-of-hope-is-still-being-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1413766","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Refugee Yusra Mardini\u2019s Story of Hope Is Still Being Written"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IN HER WORDS<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Syrian Refugee Yusra Mardini\u2019s Story of Hope Is Still Being Written<\/h1>\n
How she swam her way across the Aegean Sea and saved the lives of fellow refugees is documented in Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Swimmers.<\/em> But now, Yusra Mardini is the narrator of the rest of her life.<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Hajar Mohammad<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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In 2015, 17-year-old Yusra Mardini<\/strong> fled war-torn Syria with her sister, Sara, and, as they made their way from Turkey to Greece, spent three hours swimming across the Aegean Sea while stabilizing a small boat that held 18 other refugees.<\/p>\n

After a long and harrowing trek, Mardini reached Germany, where she was granted asylum. She resumed her lifelong swimming training and competed in the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as part of the first Refugee Olympic Team. The following year, at just 19, Mardini was appointed goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.<\/p>\n

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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

With the release of\u00a0The Swimmers<\/em> on Netflix, Mardini has been thrust further into the spotlight. She and her sister were recently named among TIME\u2019s 100 Most Influential People of 2023, and Mardini has also walked in runway shows for designers including BOSS.<\/p>\n

But, as a 20-year-old college student myself, in many ways, Mardini\u2019s life is not unlike that of most other college students I know. Now 25, she\u2019s currently enrolled at the University of Southern California. \u201cThis is exactly the time to try out everything that you want to in life and that’s what I’m doing,\u201d says Mardini.<\/p>\n

Here, she reflects on her journey.<\/p>\n

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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Allure<\/em>: How has swimming impacted your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yusra Mardini: I started swimming when I was three years old back in Damascus and my dad was my coach. He wanted us to be swimmers, he wanted us to go to the Olympics. And that’s how it all started, with me just trying to float, and then training from a really young age. I think when I was five years old, I was already swimming.<\/p>\n

Allure<\/em>: And how did it feel to realize that goal of competing in the Olympics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: It had been a dream of mine to swim at the Olympics since I was nine years old, to be honest. I swam for Syria in international competitions and before the war broke out, I had the dream to compete for Syria. But that became impossible because of the war. So when I arrived in Germany, immediately I started training. I met this incredible coach, [Sven Spannekrebs] who helped me a lot. And he saw that the international committee was giving scholarships to refugee athletes and we applied for it. It was honestly a dream come true, walking through the stadium, representing millions around the world. It was just insane. And I was 18 at the time, so it was really a dream completely, you know?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Allure<\/em>: What did your training practices look like leading up to that moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: I tried to eat healthy and I was training twice a day, so it wasn’t just staying fed, it was staying really fit. The goal was to do my best performance at the Olympics and nothing else. I made sure to sleep at least eight hours a night and go to bed early.<\/p>\n

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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Allure<\/em>: What does self-care mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: It’s being surrounded by good people, working on my dreams and goals, and understanding that sometimes you need to take five steps rather than one step to get where you want to be. It\u2019s understanding that I have to work hard and understanding also that I could fail and it’s fine. I’m going to be disappointed, I\u2019m going to be frustrated, but a lot of great things come after that, because sometimes when you’re frustrated the most, you come up with the greatest idea in your life. And it may sound cheesy, but I really, really am a person that believes the closer you are to giving up is when you really have to push one last time to get to where you want to be. You can see that from my story. I mean, I could have given up so many times, but my family taught me to never give up and to try over and over again until I am where I want to be.<\/p>\n

Allure<\/em>: Now that the Olympics are behind you, what does your self-care routine look like today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: I try to work out at least four times a week because I’m not a professional swimmer anymore. In general, I have less time to do facials and so on, but I try. Whenever I have a red carpet, I do a cryofacial, which is great before glam and all of that. I have great makeup artists that bring me face masks all the time before they put the makeup on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I still work out. I tried hot Pilates. You sweat so much and you feel the burn. I do have a very full day with university as well, because I’m a student, too. It\u2019s crazy to say, but it’s been harder to take care of myself now than when I was a professional athlete because I had time. You were forced to have a few hours of recovery between training and now I’m on the go from the morning until the evening. But I always try to take care of my skin and myself.<\/p>\n

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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Allure<\/em>: Does your Syrian heritage impact your beauty rituals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: Yes, in a positive way. We Arabs have all the secrets. I learned a lot of things from my mom, like using rose water and lemon on your hands to make them brighter and softer. Rose water is very well-known in Damascus. They cook with it, they use it for beauty, they use it for so many things. I feel like [skin care] is simpler there. You do less and you don’t have to care about it as much, but you still have the same results. And women exchange most of those beauty secrets, which I love. As a child, I used to sit down while my family was having their morning coffee and I\u2019d listen because I just wanted to know more. We take care of ourselves a lot and we are taught by our moms to embrace our beauty.<\/p>\n

Allure<\/em>: It seems like your early interest in beauty and fashion is still part of your life today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: I’ve been wanting to have my own line for clothing, but I’ve been patient about it because I’m not the type of person to just put any pieces out there. I want it to be really cool and accessible to everyone. I want it to be beautiful in every way. I want a story to be behind the line. And that’s the thing about me: Whatever I do, there’s always a story behind it. I’ve been inspired and having so much fun with the people I’m working with right now. I also would love to model and I just started slowly doing that. I walked my first show in Paris in January for Casablanca and [the theme was] peace. The whole collection was inspired by Syria. The designer, Charaf [Tajer], gave a speech about refugees, so that was incredible. I couldn’t possibly imagine any better show to start with as a model.<\/p>\n

Dressing up in these brands, it’s just such a highlight for me because I get to be myself, I get to embrace myself. I’m not going to lie, I love dressing up. I love changing every two hours if I have enough dresses, bags, and heels for it, so I’m really excited to slowly but surely be in that industry. And who knows where it’s going to lead. But I’m sure that the future is really, really bright with fashion because I really love it. Plus, my mom was a designer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Syrian<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Allure<\/em>: What are your other goals and ambitions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: Oh, I have so many goals! The most important thing that I do right now is advocating for refugees and being a voice for them. I just launched my own foundation where I’m going to be able to help refugees from the educational and the sports side and that is literally the biggest project in my life. I really am so proud about it. I’m studying film and TV production, so I really hope that I get to be creative and make incredible films in the future. And, as I said, I would love to model and I would love to act.<\/p>\n

Allure<\/em>: How can the rest of the world support Syrians right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mardini: It is very important to understand that Syria is in a humanitarian crisis. The war has been going on for such a long time. We can really support Syria by donating, by bringing awareness about what’s happening, and not just making it a trend where we talk about it for one week and then we move to the next crisis. Ukraine is not a trend, Syria is not a trend, Turkey is not a trend. The refugees that are coming [from those countries] are also not a trend. It’s really important to understand that those are human lives we are talking about and we can really support and help them in [so many ways]. You can donate clothes, you can volunteer. If you cannot donate, you can volunteer to do the smallest jobs, even online.<\/p>\n

Bring awareness about it, talk about it, and know that we really need support and help. I really hope that the governments and people understand that we need to live a normal life and have a normal home rather than stay in the camps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photographer: Pat Martin<\/strong>
Hair & Makeup: Natalie Ventola<\/strong>
Location: L’Ermitage Beverly Hills<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Read more interviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • Yara Shahidi Is Not Just “the Black Version” of Tinker Bell<\/li>\n
  • Spilling Tea With Dylan Mulvaney<\/li>\n
  • Jenna Ortega Shares the One Thing You Don’t Know About Her<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    Watch a Howard University dance captain’s entire routine:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Don’t forget to follow Allure on<\/em>Instagram<\/em>and<\/em>Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

    Source URL: https:\/\/www.allure.com\/story\/yusra-mardini-interview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    IN HER WORDS Syrian Refugee Yusra Mardini\u2019s Story of Hope Is Still Being Written How she swam her way across the Aegean Sea and saved the lives of fellow refugees is documented in Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Swimmers. But now, Yusra Mardini is the narrator of the rest of her life. By Hajar Mohammad April 27, 2023 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1413766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-allure-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1413766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1413766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1413766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1413766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}