'Until today, I can't really believe that I'm alive': The Syrian refugee who became an Olympian

At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the host nation always parades last around the stadium. They receive the loudest cheer from an overtly partisan crowd. Other nations get a courteous reception, sometimes a biased reception in the case of both Palestine and Israel.

At the Maracana on August 5, the most rapturous “hurrah” may well be reserved for the athletes walking out behind the Olympic flag, just before Brazil: the refugee team. They represent no nation, but embody the “Olympic spirit”.

The team has 10 athletes, who have persisted in both sports and life, even if the momentum was often heavily skewed against them. Judokas Yolande Mabika and Popole Misenga both fled the Democratic Republic of Congo for Brazil. Ethiopian marathon runner Yonas Kinde found safety in Luxembourg and five track athletes escaped South Sudan for Kenya. There was Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini, who trained in Germany.

And finally, there was Rami Anis, another Syrian swimmer, who found refuge in Belgium.

“It is a signal to the international community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society,” said International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. “These refugee athletes will show the world that despite the unimaginable tragedies that they have faced, anyone can contribute to society through their talent, skills and strength of the human spirit.”

Carine Verbauwen, Anis’s coach and an Olympian in the 1970’s for Belgium, wasn’t surprised that her protégé made team refugee. “Yusra [Mardini] was a shoe-in for the team, because she was the face of the refugees,” said Verbauwen. “She swims well, but she is not top. She’d fail to make the final of the Belgian championship. They simply had to take Rami [Anis].”

Hope and despair

Anis had been more sceptical, almost a non-believer in his own selection, among 42 other short-listed athletes. His scepticism in part reflected his swimming career’s many undulations of hope and despair. The Syrian grew up in Aleppo, which he described as "the most destructive city in the world" in a press conference, to caring parents. His father Osama was a civil engineer, his mother Mayada a teacher French. They were upper middle class, affluent and happy.

In his early teens, Anis trained daily in the local pool. He adored Michael Phelps and, with the help of YouTube videos, tried to align his techniques to those of the American swimmer. “Phelps is the best swimmer of all-time,” said Anis. “No one can or will match his achievements. No one has his strength, determination and persistence.”

Anis rapidly rose to the top of domestic swimming, his talent innate – with uncle Majad also among Syria’s elite swimmers – and his commitment profound. He represented Syria at two World Championships. The 2012 Olympic Games were beckoning, but the war broke out and prevented Anis from competing in London.

Osama deemed Syria too dangerous for his sons and sent Anis to join his brother Eyad in Istanbul, Turkey. He packed a modest suitcase with a few clothes and headed for the Turkish capital. Leaving Aleppo was “the hardest moment of my life”, said Anis. For four years, he trained with Galatasaray, one of the leading sports clubs in Turkey. He was in peak condition, recording a career-best time of 55.39 seconds in the 100 meters butterfly, but his refugee status prevented him from competing in competitions. His teammates flew off to championships and camps in the United States. “I needed camps, competitions and tournaments, but that wasn’t available," said Anis.

Making the perilous journey

Last summer, Anis’s Serbian coach quit at Galatasaray. He followed suit. For a moment, he considered to give up swimming. His father urged him to go to Belgium after he had made the crossing to Europe. On a rubber dinghy, Anis and his brother Mohammad crossed to Greece. “Until today, I can’t really believe that I am still alive,” said Anis. “The boat was very small, and tight, and full of women and kids. I was terrified. I feared for the lives of the children.”

At full sea, the motor failed. The high waves hit the dinghy, eliciting cries and screams from the refugees. Surrounded by water and under the moonlight, the refugees were petrified, but Anis could do little to appease any fears. Once on shore, he struggled his way westward on foot and by train, through gruelling cold nights and in dire conditions, across Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and finally Belgium, where he found a new home.

“On the first day of his arrival, he asked how much he’d get paid if he’d swim for a club?” recalled Verbauwen. “In Belgium, you have to enroll as a member to swim. He had an offer from Berlin, Germany, with accommodation and expenses covered. I advised him to go, because in Belgium he’d not get that. He left for Berlin, but his info turned out to be wrong.”

Anis returned to Belgium, where his father stayed in an asylum centre. He got asylum in Fleurus near Charleroi, in the Walloon region of Belgium, in October. Charleroi’s local swimming club required a membership fee of €200 (around Rs 14,800), which Anis couldn’t afford. As an alternative, he tried Fleurus’s municipal pool, but swimming among kids and seniors scarcely allowed for adequate training. He did need it, because he had applied for the refugee team, his Olympic dream depended on it, a time of 54 seconds in the 100 metre butterfly was required.

Verbauwen fixed him a membership at her own club, Royal Ghent Swimming Club, gear and access to a gym. They sat to work, in a race against the clock. “In February, he hadn’t swum for six months since arriving from Turkey,” said Verbauwen. “I was very tough; there was no time for compassion. I checked with the physiologist. Rami had to train at an accelerated pace. He suffered and had to grit his teeth.”

Back-breaking times

In general, Anis trained nine times a week, swimming five to six kilometres per session. Twice a week, he lifted weights and gained power in the gym. “At times, Rami would say he was tired,” remembered Verbauwen. “I am sorry, I replied, but you will do this.”

Anis suffered from the training sessions and long commute from Fleurus to Ghent, six hours back and forth. He combined this with classes in Dutch, a demanding schedule that was almost untenable. On March 1, he had to leave the asylum centre, but house-hunting without mastery of Dutch and without legal documents was nigh impossible. His coach helped out, and realized that Belgian social services were plainly unfit to deal with the situation.

“For the services of the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare), you basically need to be homeless,” explained Verbauwen. “You can’t say that ‘I will be without housing on March 1, can I already register?’ No, Rami needed proof that he was a recognised refugee so that the OCMW would give him money for the house. But all social housing has waiting lists of up to seven years. In the private market, you need proof that you have an income. Social security required him to have housing first to give him such a document. Often just one more document would have sufficed, but no one waived any rules. Franz Kafka must have written his books in Belgium after hitting a wall so many times.”

Verbauwen’s former mother-in-law rented an apartment in Eeklo, a small village near Ghent, to Anis. In the pool, his times improved: 57.55 seconds in March, 56.37 seconds in April and 55.86 seconds in May. Then, the IOC, speeding up proceedings and dropping the requirement of a time limit, came to interview Anis about his training sessions and previous career achievements. When Bach confirmed his inclusion in the team and participation in Rio de Janeiro, Anis, barely containing his joy, wrote “Wait for us, Rio, we are coming.” in a Facebook post. “I want to tell the world how refugees suffer in their lives and that they deserve better,” he explained.

In the last weeks preceding the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Anis participated in a camp in Hungary and in the Open French Championships in Vichy, where he swam against the hosts, the Dutch, the Hungarians, and other leading swimming nations. He finished 18th in the 100m butterfly series with a time of 55.87 seconds and eighth and last in the 100m butterfly B final in a time of 56.14 seconds. In Rio, the aim is to break the 55 seconds barrier.

“I want him to swim under 55 seconds,” urged Verbauwen. “It is possible if he swims wisely and composedly.”

“My main target is to break my record of 55.39 seconds and if I make 54 seconds it will mean that I am the third best swimmer in Belgium,” said Anis.

On Monday, Anis and his coach flew to Brazil. Whatever Anis’ result in Rio’s pool, he already belongs to Mount Olympus.

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