“That day changed my life for the better”
Status: 07:26 a.m.
With the swimming cap of the IOC refugee team: Alaa Maso fulfilled a childhood dream in Tokyo
Source: AFP / ATTILA KISBENEDEK
Swimmer Alaa Maso fled Syria six years ago. He found a new home in Germany and now jumped into the pool for the refugee team in Tokyo. An emotional week lies behind him – also because he met his brother again after eight months.
AWhen Alaa Maso leaves the Olympic swimming pool in Tokyo, he could hardly be happier: at the opening ceremony a week ago there was an emotional reunion with his brother, he had just fulfilled a childhood dream with his start in the 50 meter freestyle, and now he’s leaving Side by side with his great role model, France’s Olympic champion Florent Manadou, out and chat with him. In Maso’s hand: the white swimming cap of the IOC refugee team.
“It was my first and only race here in Tokyo, but for me it was the beginning of new goals. That day changed my life for the better, ”said the 21-year-old in an interview with WELT after his race. “It is an honor to be able to start for this team and represent all the refugees.” Maso once set out on the run with his brother. This also competed in Tokyo, but for Syria and in the triathlon. So they experienced separate from each other, but still shared a dream.
Take a deep breath: Alaa Maso, who trains at SGS Hannover, at a competition in Berlin
Source: pa / dpa / dpa-Zentral / Soeren Stache
Maso started the race on lane four in the fifth of ten heats and hit after 23.30 seconds. For comparison: US star Caeleb Dressel swam 21.91 seconds. “Unfortunately not the time I wanted, but very close to my best time,” he says. “I’m very, very happy.” That he experienced this moment without an audience didn’t bother him. “I knew that a lot of people support me by watching TV. I felt it all, ”he says. “I haven’t spoken to my family and friends yet, but I know they are proud of me.”
Tears of joy with the brother
His seven-year-old brother was unable to watch the race at the Tokyo Aquatics Center – the triathlon race took place on Monday, and the pandemic means that all athletes have to leave 48 hours after they started. Mohamad Maso had crossed the finish line as 47th of 51 athletes and burst into tears with relief and joy. He had started playing sports as a young boy, but the war, the escape and the uncertainty had changed a lot. In the end, he still managed to officially qualify for the Games.
Tears of happiness: Mohamad Maso at the finish line of the Olympic triathlon race
Source: AP / David Goldman
It’s been six years since the brothers fled Aleppo and ended up in Lower Saxony. At Hannover 96 they found a new sporting home. While Alaa worked on his Olympic dream there until the end, his brother lived and trained in the Netherlands during the pandemic. They had not seen each other for eight months when the Games opened on July 23 at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
The second IOC refugee team in history, for which six other athletes now living in Germany were nominated in addition to Maso, came in second behind Greece under the Olympic flag. Chef de Mission is the former marathon world record holder Tegla Loroupe from Kenya. “We both love sport,” says Alaa Maso of his brother and himself. “And we would both have run for Syria if it had been possible. I had problems with my bandage, it wasn’t possible for me. It was different with him. “
Emotional reunion
When the two met during the invasion of the nations, they fell into each other’s arms. An image that moved on social media. “That was a very nice moment,” says Maso now in the swimming pool. “When we were children, we always dreamed of competing at the Olympic Games together. Now it came true. We were both just very happy at that moment. “
When Maso talks about the celebration, about his family, about his hope to start in Paris in 2024 and maybe even in Los Angeles in 2028 and then be faster, something occurs to him that meant a lot to him in those days of Tokyo : In the refectory of the Olympic village he met Olympic champion Manaudou. “He is my absolute role model, he inspired me,” says Maso. “I always have a highlight video of his races on my mobile phone, which I watch before every start. I was overjoyed when I met him. ”He looks around. And there he comes, Manaudou, into the mixed zone. “Look, there he is.”
Maso waits, listens when the Frenchman gives interviews – and then asks him for a photo together. Then the two of them leave the Aquatics Center together.
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