IOC Refugee Olympic Team swimmer Alaa Maso: I am representing a nation even bigger than my new homeland
IOC Refugee Team athlete Alaa Maso's outlook on life has changed significantly as he approaches his second Olympic Games at Paris 2024.
Three years ago the swimmer, who fled war-torn Syria in 2015 to start a new life in Germany, was preparing for his first international competition ever at Tokyo 2020. He went on to finish fourth in his 50m freestyle heat and was left spellbound after meeting one of his sporting heroes, Michael Phelps.
Since then Maso has competed at multiple World and European Championships, and is now totally at home on the world’s biggest sporting stages.
“I’m no longer that unsure guy from Tokyo, who had never been to such events!” Maso explained with a smile to Olympics.com.
“I’m more experienced and I know how to deal with the pressure of competition, so I'm really excited to be returning. It will be an even higher amount of excitement that will likely hit me in Paris with the crowd, so I can’t wait.”
Alaa Maso's honour in signing the "Golden Book" of Hanover
While Maso has seen his performances in the pool dramatically improve, it is personal transformation that is perhaps even more important.
In 2016, the freestyle sprinter and his brother eventually settled in the German town of Hanover. They used sport as a way to improve their wellbeing, learn German, and build a new life for themselves.
Alaa received an IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship in June 2021 and was selected to compete for the team at Tokyo 2020, while his brother, Mohamad, took part in the triathlon for Syria.
“I grew so much. I learnt that swimming is part of my life and not my whole life. So that's very important to separate because you must have more than one thing that your entire life is based on. You also need somewhere to go when you're not in sports. I always had other outlets such as school, too. So that's something I understood about myself, which is something which is, which is a very big step for me forward.”
To celebrate their inspiring story of overcoming adversity to compete at the Olympic Games, the Maso brothers were given the honour of signing the “Golden Book” of Hannover at the Town Hall as the first refugee athletes from the city to compete at a major sports event.
“It's very special for me because we were able to meet the head of our state in Germany,” Alaa said.
“I really feel at home in Germany. I'm not the kind of person that has this belonging somewhere. I just feel home wherever I feel at home. I had a new family in Germany and life always goes on. That's why I was very thankful to have the chance to make it there.”
The mental and physical benefits of swimming
Swimming helped Maso recover on several levels from the trauma of being separated from his family and moving to a new continent.
As his favourite former pastime, it firstly helped him find peace within himself, and cleared his mind.
But after taking his training more seriously again, it developed his mental strength and resilience, which were the foundations of him making the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
“The first effect you feel from swimming training and how it could improve your life in general is with discipline. Not everybody would have the guts to get up at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. every day to be in the water and train,” he said.
“I think swimming also strengthens our mindset very much. You have to have the perfect flow because swimming isn’t about gaining speed. It's all about maintaining the speed and the more disciplined you are, the more you can look after your body position, your stroke number, and your breathing.
"When all of that comes together, you will have the perfect technique and the perfect flow in the water. And that's what you try to incorporate into your life as a whole.”
The IOC Refugee Olympic Team has grown in size for Paris 2024, but this is in conjunction with the number of displaced people also increasing in the world.
While Maso takes unbelievable pride in competing at his second Games, and looks forward to competing in the same event as another of his sporting heros in Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel, his motivation is not personal accolades.
He wants to represent and inspire millions of people around the world who are facing similar hardship to himself in 2015 when he left Syria.
“It makes me very proud to be able to have this chance again and swim at the Olympic Games. The feelings are, however, very mixed. I am representing a very big nation of 100 plus million refugees. That’s an even bigger nation than Germany,” he said.
“We have to express the solidarity of the Olympic Games and refugees, and shine a spotlight on the millions of refugees that have dreams and goals to start a new life somewhere safe.
“My message to them is that they are the heroes, wherever they are, whatever they are doing. If you have a dream, just keep fighting for it - it's worth it. You're going to get there with sacrifice and hard work.