Wonder Woman of the Week: Yusra Mardini

There are few people in the history of humanity whose sheer will to continue led them beyond simple survival but delivered them into immortality. Explorers stranded in Antarctic ice, astronauts gambling on space travel, and French fur trappers dragging themselves to safety after surviving wild animal attacks don't come anywhere close to this week's Wonder Woman and the elevated legacy she's creating for the human experience. Yusra Mardini was born in Syria in 1998 where she rapidly gained national attention as one of the top youth swimmers in the country. In 2012, Mardini represented Syria at the World Swimming Championships in three events. Mardini returned to her country when the political future of Syria was deteriorating rapidly.

Political unrest had begin in Syria in 2011 as part of a larger series of political revolutions throughout the Arab World- some more peaceful than others. Violence escalated in 2012 in the same year Mardini had her first opportunity to represent Syria at the international stage. The then-president Bashar al-Assad was intent on labeling any opposition to his leadership as "jihadist" and oversaw a series of orders to launch chemical attacks on Syria's civilian populations who called for moderate reforms to his regime.

Over the next three years, what began as peaceful protests against a hardline Nationalist government became a fight for survival against a brutal dictator unashamed of calling for the mass executions of his own citizens. Calls for government reform rapidly turned into a multi-front civil war, and- in 2015- Mardini's home entered the front lines. The Mardini home was destroyed in 2015 during the pinnacle of violence in the violence, and Yusra's family were looking for a way out of the country.

Syrian refugees were leaving the country in such high numbers few countries in the would could respond rapidly enough to process such massive numbers of asylum requests. The result became one of the largest refugee crises of the century with illegal operations taking place to smuggle Syrians out of the country. Mardini's family left Syria through Turkey to get smuggled into Greece with eighteen others on a boat meant for six passengers. What made the terrible situation worse was that the boat's engine failed in the middle of the sea- and began taking on water.

Yusra and her sister Sarah- a fellow swimmer- lashed themselves to the boat, jumped overboard, and swam the boat full of migrants across the sea for three hours- manually delivering the boat to the Greek island of Lesbos. The problem was that the entire ordeal was entirely illegal. That meant nobody could ever know what the two girls did to save the lives of so many. Instead, the Mardini family traveled by foot across Europe to reach Berlin in Germany. Once there, the superhuman swimmers from Syria joined up with a local swim club to continue their dreams of becoming Olympic swimmers. Under a newly formed banner for refugee athletes, Yusra Mardini reached her goal and competed in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil by competing in two events, then competed again in the 2020 (held in 2021) Olympics in Japan.

Yusra and her sister became internationally famous for their story- but that was not necessarily a good thing. While Yusra earned top sponsorships from athletic brands like Under Armour, she and her sister also came under the eyes of international criminal courts. They had after all illegally entered Europe. Yusra's sister Sarah faced especially stiff legal backlash when- in 2018- she was accused of being a member of a criminal organization dedicated to human trafficking, money laundering, and fraud in Greece.

Yusra and her sister are far from reaching anything that could resemble a fairytale ending. Criminal courts in Greece are currently convening to discuss the fate of Sarah Mardini, and Yusra's involvement in the same NGO accused of being a front for organized crime could put her on the courts' list next. Even surviving European criminal courts however would be next to nothing beside surviving the future of their home country of Syria where civil war has turned to violent anarchy.

Considering how bad things have become in Syria, it's not far-fetched to say Yusra and her family will likely never see a safe Syrian ever again. What's more is that European countries continue to struggle with xenophobia against refugees from the Middle East while championing aid for European refugees.

The double standard of support in Europe for refugees caught up in the violent Post-Cold War world of the 21st Century has created a new nightmare for the Mardinis and the tens of thousands of families pouring into the continent in search of asylum- made worse by the criminalization of seeking a better life. That makes the story of Yusra and her sister that much more important to tell. Two girls of exceptional athleticism who performed superhuman feats of strength no child should ever have to endure to save the lives of innocent people whose homes were ruined by war under the iron fist of a mass-murdering dictator should have monuments built to the stars in their honor. But while Sarah Mardini faces criminal charges, and Yusra trains for another Olympics; we can only hope that the words of Emma Lazarus (a WWoW alum) may ring true for the world at large.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"