Refugee Swimmer Inspired by Olympic Games Opportunity

Anis's coach, Olympian Carine Verbauwen, said Anis "had been an international swimmer since he was 14 and competed at two world championships (in Rome 2009 and Shanghai 2011)."

Anis has overcome significant personal traumas, which he does not like to talk about, on his path to the Olympic Games.

"Rami was a protected figure in Syria because he was a swimmer but at a certain point, he got in trouble with his government because they asked him to take a political stand and he didn’t want to," Verbauwen said.

"If he'd stayed there, he would have been enlisted and would have had to go to war but his father didn't want him to, so sent him to Turkey where, as a non-Turk, he couldn't compete for anyone.

"When Aleppo was bombed, his parents fled to Turkey too but after two years their money ran out. So the family came over to Europe for a new life. Two months after his father, Rami came over on boats with his younger brother.

"Now, he doesn't want to talk about it. He said, 'When I made it to Belgium, I didn't want to think about it any more. It's something I really, really want to forget'."

The family, who will be reunited when ANIS's mother arrives from Turkey in a month, were eventually granted asylum last year and, in Ghent, Anis revived his career under the tutelage of Verbauwen, who finished fifth in the 100m backstroke at the 1980 Moscow Games behind three East Germans.

Anis says he is proud to be part of the refugee team. "We are representing people who have lost their homeland, who've had their homes burned, who were killed, and now we are representing them in a good way," he said. "It's an amazing feeling."

- ONS