BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Yusra Mardini slept in fear of Hungarian border police on train station floors on her first visit to Budapest when she fled her native Syria two years ago.
Now they protect the 19-year-old swimmer as an Olympic athlete competing at the world championships.
It’s been quite a change.
After her ordeal – she was stuck for a week in Hungary as part of her 25-day journey to Germany – Mardini wasn’t exactly looking forward to coming back to the Hungarian capital.
”I hated the country, I hated the people. I said, `I’m gonna come back one day, rich, a normal person, and then I can also enter as a normal person.