HIGH WATER
Sports Illustrated US|Sportsperson of the Year 2022
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A SWIMMER'S JOURNEY GETS THE HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
HIGH WATER

AS ELEVATOR PITCHES go, you could do a lot worse than Olympic swimmer pulls a boatful of refugees to safety. In 2015, Yusra Mardini and her sister Sara left war-torn Syria. Their journey took them to Turkey, where they crowded onto an overloaded dinghy that broke down en route to the island of Lesbos. Yusra and Sara end up hauling the boat to safety. That's just one step on their journey to Germany, where they eventually found asylum and where Yusra was able to resume training for the Olympics. (She competed in 2016 and '20.)

This story is from the Sportsperson of the Year 2022 edition of Sports Illustrated US.

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This story is from the Sportsperson of the Year 2022 edition of Sports Illustrated US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.