Yasmine Ahmed Hussain is an 18 years old swimmer with Down Syndrome from Egypt. She has won more than 60 Gold medals in Egypt Republic Championship and Egypt Cup Championship. She has also participated in many international events. She started swimming at the age of 5 years and is currently in her last year of American high school diploma and speaks 3 languages – Arabic, English and  German.

She also participated in the 3rd celebration of the International Day with Persons with Disabilities under the name of “Differently Abled” organized by the Egyptian Sports Federation for Intellectual Disabilities – ESFID in cooperation with the Ministries of Youth, Sports and Social Solidarity, Egypt with the presence of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, President of Egypt.

Yasmine Hussain flaunting her Gold medals from the Egypt Republic and Cup Championship

Yasmine was recently appointed as a UN ambassador to the ‘Shabab Balad Initiative’ which is the Egyptian version of the UN Global initiative ‘Generation Unlimited’. e world’s first Public-Private-Youth Partnership (PPYP) aiming to skill and connect all of the world’s 1.8 billion young people aged 10-24 to opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and positive social impact by 2030.

Yasmina (fourth from right) with the other UN ambassadors for the ‘Generation Unlimited’. P.C- UNICEF

Yasmine’s parents and sister were very supportive and always encouraged her.

“When she was young, my vision and my priority for her were actually her academics but as soon as she competed in her first championship, my priorities totally changed. Swimming gave her immense self-confidence and provided a platform where she could excel.

Her mother shared a special message for all the parents who have children with intellectual impairment

“Sports really changed my daughter’s life for the best so I always encourage you to let your children participate in any type of sport, not just swimming but any sport. Also, don’t let anyone tell you that your children can’t do anything in life, because I know they achieve great heights. These children have passion for some things and they can learn and excel in them.”

Gabriel Bandeira posing with his Gold Medal at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Photo Credit: OIS/Joel Marklund.

It may be surprising to know that the Paralympian was actually training to compete in the Olympic Games until he was diagnosed with intellectual impairment. Gabriel had a very happy childhood with supporting parents who never made him feel he had an intellectual impairment. When his friends and coaches mentioned to him that he might have an impairment and that he should get a diagnostic test done, Gabriel refused it twice because he never felt he was different as it was his ‘normal’. Later in 2018, Gabriel finally agreed to get his test done and was given his eligibility class. Bandeira had a smooth transfer to the Paralympic movement.

“I felt embraced by the Paralympic Movement. It was a very peaceful and light process. I felt like I really could be myself. While I was training with the Olympic athletes, the coach gave the same instructions to the whole team and everybody followed them. But, in the Paralympics training, the coach pays attention to each swimmer according to their impairment. For example, he prints my training so that I don’t struggle with memorising it, he explains it carefully and depending on the situation he knows how to talk to me. When he gives constructive feedback to me, it takes me some time to process it and I can also be aggressive or very sad about it, and the coach stays very calm and patient with me the whole time whilst motivating me until I understand my fault so I do not drop my performance during the session and to improve it instead.”

Bandeira believes there could be others like him who are not aware of having an intellectual impairment, and who want to compete in high-level sports but are unable to do so because they might not receive the proper guidance as per their impairment-specific needs. Bandeira wants to advocate for intellectual impairment and increase awareness about Paralympic sports for those who want to compete.