22-year-old Mardini's escape from war-torn Syria led her to the Olympics, taught her to embrace the word 'refugee', and changed her concept of what winning really means
Yusra Mardini of Syria during a training session at the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 training pool Olympiapark Berlin on March 9, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images for IOC)
(This story appears in the 26 February, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)