AUC Olympic Swimmer Battles Lasting Injuries

By: Alia Rabie
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Every athlete’s worst nightmare is being unable to play their sport due to injury. It is a fear that looms over every match, every game, every time they put their gear on.

Leila Abdel-Fattah, architectural engineering student and former Olympic synchronized swimmer junior, has been swimming ever since she was four years old.

She made the Egyptian national team from age 12 to 21 and by 20, she was participating in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.

“Three months prior to traveling, however, a teammate jammed into me accidentally during practice, which caused a serious injury in my knee,” she told The Caravan.

The pain was more mental than it is was physical as Abdel-Fattah was locked in an internal conflict of whether she should give up on her dream and give in to her injury or fight it and strive for success.

“Ever since I was a little girl, my family taught me that giving up is not an option. With the help of both my brother and sister, I was able to push myself.”

Feeling motivated, she chose to ignore her injury and make her journey to Brazil.

The pain tremendously increased during Abdel-Fattah’s training period in Rio the month before the competition which made her a little self conscious about her performance but that only pushed her even harder to prove herself.

“When I decided to seek the help of medical experts there, I was told that I should put a halt on getting any medical examinations so that I could actually participate in the competition. This is because the injury seemed serious and needed an MRI for the doctors to actually decide on a remedy.”

Regardless of the dangers of competing with such an injury, Abdel-Fattah and her team scored seventh place.

“Abdel-Fattah has always been the one motivating us all. I have seen her get over a lot of injuries but this time was different; she was feeling down at the beginning but with all of us by her side she made it through,” teammate Nour El-Ayoubi said.

Following an operation that left her homebound for two months, she was able to walk again with a cane until her muscles gained enough strength to function on their own.

“These two months were unbelievably depressing. I was in a very dark mental state and it was very hard for me to push myself to go back to training because I had lost all motivation and all confidence in my ability.”

She finally found a spark of motivation when she got a call from the Egyptian Swimming Federation urging her to return to the national team and to participate in Budapest’s 2017 World Aquatic Championships, where they ranked 15 out of 45 last July.

“I started training, step by step, so as not to shock my muscles. I was working very hard not just on improving my skills, but also on showing everyone, that I can overcome the injury.”