FROM REFUGEE TO RIO
Syrian escaped to pursue dream
GHENT, BELGIUM Rami Anis braved the bombs of Aleppo, then was forced to leave his Syrian home for Turkey five years ago — all the while refusing to give up on his dream of swimming in the Olympics.
He trained at the prestigious Galatasaray sports club in Istanbul, putting in lap after lap after lap, month after month. But soon, frustration set in because he was a refugee. That short window when a good athlete can truly become elite was closing fast. And he knew it. “I could not swim for the club. I was just training without taking part,” he said. “All the while, the war was lasting longer. And I was losing my best years as an athlete.”
So last year, at age 24, he took a different dive into the water and crossed on a rubber boat from Turkey into Greece — a stretch of Aegean Sea that has become the tomb of too many refugees — before setting off a 2,000-mile (3,000-kilometre) trek through the Balkans, onward to Germany and eventually Belgium.
Now, as part of the first official refugee team at the Games, Anis will be going to Rio — having lost some of his edge and many illusions along the way. Still, he clings to one. “I wish from my heart that there will be no more refugees and we can go back and participate for our country,” he said.
Not so long ago, he dreamed of being among the best swimmers in the world. He had competed in two world championships and a short-course world cup, finished second at the Asian championships. In short, he was looking to break through at an international level.
After arriving in Europe last fall, he thought he could make money swimming and provide for his family.
All too often though, swimming costs money instead of making it, despite the allure of Olympic gold.
“He didn’t want to accept charity,” said Carine Verbauwen, a former Olympic swimming finalist who later became a coach.
The best deal she had for him was that he would not have to pay to swim at her club S&R Rozebroeken, some 30 miles (50 kilometres) west of Brussels. It doesn’t quite have the ring of Galatasaray, but at least his Olympic dream was rekindled.
His problems, though, were not solved. Belgian bureaucracy loomed. After Anis was recognized as a refugee, he had to look for housing. To get that, he had to prove how much he made. But for social security to give him such a paper, he had to have housing first, Verbauwen said.
Verbauwen said it was a Belgian Catch-22.
“We didn’t get the house because we didn’t have the paper. We didn’t get the paper because we didn’t have a house.”
So she looked around among friends and family for a kind spirit and instead of six hours of travel for two hours of training, he now lives just 25 kilometres from the pool.
Now, it is work on his form that counts, trying to overcome a halfyear layoff from top-class training. Verbauwen said for one month of rest, it takes two to come back. Little wonder he will not challenge for 100-metre butterfly medals in Rio.
“If you don’t swim six months then you have lost a lot,” Verbauwen said. “It was very, very hard for him to do the training with my swimmers. He was so tired he could not do it anymore.”
Anis just wants to come out of the water, head held high.
“God willing, I will do a good enough job that satisfied the Olympic Committee and the Syrian people.”