Syrian hero to swim in Paralympics
LONDON: A Syrian refugee who lost his leg in a rocket bomb explosion while rushing to the aid of his friend has been announced as a Paralympic athlete.
On Friday, Ibrahim Al Hussein was named as one half of the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team representing refugees and asylum-seekers at the Rio Games when they start on September 7.
He will be joined by Shahrad Nasajpour, from Iran, who now lives in the US and will take part in the discus.
The inclusion of refugees in the Paralympic and Olympic teams has served to remind a global audience of the plight of those trapped in war-torn countries and those who risk their lives to try and escape persecution.
Yusra Mardini attracted widespread recognition while competing in Rio after it emerged she once swam for three hours to save the lives of 20 people when the motor on the dinghy she was crossing the Mediterranean in failed.
Al Hussein will represent the refugee team in swimming events, taking on the men’s 50m and 100m as a leg amputee. Growing up in Deir ez-Zor on the Iraqi border, he was always athletic – swimming, playing basketball and practising judo, hoping to one day become an Olympic swimmer.
His father was a swimming coach and he and his 13 siblings grew to love the water. In 2012, a year after the civil war broke out in his country, a bomb went off close to his home.
The 27-year-old had taken shelter from the blast inside his house but was soon alerted to his injured friend calling for help. As he ran out of the building and across the street to try and help his friend, he was hit by a rocket, injuring his leg.
He managed to crawl away from the scene and was rescued by some of his friends. However, the damage to his leg was too severe and doctors had to amputate the limb from the mid-calf down.
Medical facilities were so stretched medics were unable to anaesthetise him properly and the swimmer says he “woke up twice during surgery and saw everything”.
Al Hussein was sent home the same day after having the bottom half of his leg removed. Due to the increasingly sparse supplies of medicine available, he spent the next few months recovering with essentially no pain relief.
“At first I didn’t accept it, but finally I came to terms with it,” he said. “I lived like there was nothing wrong and I’m still doing that.”
Al Hussein left Syria and first travelled to Turkey before reaching the Greek island of Samos, travelling on a rubber dinghy, to seek further treatment for his leg.
After being granted asylum in the country two years ago, Al Hussein settled in Athens and began to rebuild his life. He has lost contact with his family back in Syria. “My eyes only look forward… I can’t think of the past. If I remember all those things behind me, it will slow me down.”
He was chosen to carry the Olympic torch for Greece in the run-up to Rio. After it was first lit in Olympus, Greece, Al Hussein carried it through the Elaionas camp, which houses 1 500 refugees in Athens – something he called a “great honour”.