Swimmer Alaa Maso has come a long way since escaping unexploded bombs landing on his home in Aleppo and embarking on an arduous journey to find a new life.
Having made it to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer, 21-year-old Maso competed in the recent Fina World Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi, where he continued to make new friends and pursue his long-term target of the 2024 Paris Games.
It is an opportunity Maso never dreamt possible when he left Syria in 2015 to build a better future and further his swimming ambitions.
The biggest life-changing opportunity came when he was named in the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the Tokyo Games after his participation in the German national championships on June 2019.
“My name was the first to be called and it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” Maso told The National. “It was an incredible feeling when I reached Tokyo after two weeks of training in Frankfurt and a week in Qatar.”
For Maso, the Olympics was not only about competing but making a lot of friends, and soaking up the atmosphere as much as possible.
“At the Olympic Village, I learnt many things from those professional athletes, like how they prepared and how they handled the pressure before competitions,” he said. “The most fascinating thing about the Olympics was the opportunity to sit in the dining hall with very famous athletes in all sports and from all over the world.
“I was very fortunate to bump into the world tennis star Novak Djokovic. He was sitting close to me in the dining hall. I walked up to him for a chat and also take a selfie with him. I also had the opportunity to speak to several Olympic stars.”
After he was named in the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, Maso's preparation was hindered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I had only five months to prepare for Tokyo,” he said. “I had to adjust a lot of things. I had to change my training schedules and I went from 15 hours a week to 25 hours a week.
“It was very challenging because such things need a lot of time. However, for me there was a lot of things to be happy about, and somehow, I found the time to prepare and then I had more time to adjust with the new schedule, and it all went well.
“Anyway, the Olympics was postponed by a year and I had a year and five months to prepare although we had very hard time because of the lockdowns, which meant a lot of stoppages in the training schedules.”
Tokyo was even more memorable for Maso because his brother Mohamed, 28, who lives with him in Germany, was competing in the triathlon for Syria and they won the hearts of the world when a picture of them embracing at the opening ceremony went viral on social media.
“My brother and I always dreamt about going to the Olympics, but we never thought that we were going to be there together because we always aimed for Paris 2024, so it really was a dream come true,” said Alaa.
Maso’s journey to Europe began when he and his brother decided to leave their home country in 2015 to escape the escalating troubles.
“With the situation getting worse by the day and the swimming facility in which we trained severely damaged, me and my brother decided to leave,” he said.
It was a gruelling 12-day journey to Europe involving crowded boat rides, buses, trains, and hiking as they joined thousands of Syrians to flee the country for their safety.
“Me and my brother got separated a few times as there was so many of us going to the same place,” he said.
“I had to walk around 26 kilometres with a group of 300 people for seven hours and we were all wet. We were crossing roads, fields, and mountains in very cold and rainy conditions. I remember it until today, it was one of the worst days of my life.”
Alaa and Mohamed travelled on to the border between Slovenia and Austria, and then through 10 countries including Turkey, Greece, and Serbia. They were given refuge in the Netherlands for eight months before moving to Germany.
“The first couple of months in Germany were very tough as it was completely different to what I had experienced back home,” Alaa said.
He can now speak German, Dutch, English and Arabic after continuing his education but he was still passionate about swimming.
Maso joined a local club in Hannover and after a four-year gap on the competitive stage, he quickly made a big splash in Germany and started getting noticed.
He also enjoyed taking part in the 50m and 100m freestyle in Abu Dhabi in December.
“The most remarkable thing for me was representing the first ever Fina Refugee Team in the World Championships which was a great experience and a great honour,” he said.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get to better my personal best, and that was what I was here for. The next major event coming up for me is the World Championships (long course) in Fukuoka in May.
“The long term objectives are Paris and to reach an Olympic final, and that’s something I dream about and something that I’m training for.
“I would like to say a big thank you to Fina for providing me with this opportunity and continue to compete under the Refugee Team banner representing more than 82 million refugees on the run.”
