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After competing in the Para-swimming events at the last two Paralympics, Ibrahim Al Hussein is about to take on a new challenge. The Syrian-born athlete, a refugee in Greece who competes for the Paralympic Refugee Team, will compete in the Para triathlon. A new page in a life worthy of a novel.
Freedom or death. This is the motto of the Greek nation. Words that particularly resonate for Ibrahim Al Hussein, the Syrian who found refuge in Greece in 2014. At the time, his country had been wracked by civil war for three years.
His destiny was shaken one day in 2012, when he was the victim of a shell explosion, having stepped in to protect a friend who had been targeted by sniper fire. “At the time, I didn't know whether I was dead or alive”, he confided to the BBC in an interview ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Ibrahim lost part of his lower right leg. The joint in his left foot was also affected.
Like 8,000 of his compatriots every year, Al Hussein crossed the Mediterranean in 2014, at the age of 26. After a quick and disappointing passage through Turkey, he resolved to head for Greece and the island of Samos, a land of refuge for many refugees wishing to reach Europe.
“When I arrived in Greece in 2014, penniless and in a wheelchair, a Greek doctor treated me for free,” he reveals to Paralympic.org. So I started working to be able to afford a bit of sport with disabled people and integrate into Greek society.”
Once he had settled in, the young man set about getting back into sport. Having taken up sport at the age of five, in an athletic family, he can't imagine his daily life without a dose of happiness. Still speaking to the BBC, he explains his difficulties: “I spent all my mornings trying to find sports clubs that would accept me. I would tell them that I used to be a sportsman, but as a refugee with an injury, most would reject me.”
A wheelchair basketball team finally opened its arms to him. Then he was allowed to train in swimming, in the Olympic pool he had admired at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
His level quickly improved and Ibrahim took part in the national championships. In 2016, he won two medals and began to make a name for himself in his adopted country. In view of his remarkable achievements, he was invited to carry the Olympic flame in Athens, at the very start of his journey to Rio for the next Olympics. At the time, the swimmer had no idea that these Games would mark him for life.
He was selected by the Olympic team for the refugee S9 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle events, and even became their flag-bearer. It was one of the most important events of his life: “It changed my life completely and opened doors and new horizons for me."
Five years later, in Tokyo, the swimmer did it again and found himself once more the flag-bearer of a six-strong delegation. Although he still didn't win a medal, he continued to write his story.
In Paris, Ibrahim Al Hussein will be lining up for the Para triathlon event, where he's hoping for a top 5 finish. A discipline he has been practicing for several years. In the streets of Paris, as in the Seine, he'll be blowing a wind of freedom.
