Yusra Mardini, swimming, Syria
Traveling to Rio from Germany, where she lives now with her family since 2015, the 18-year-old talented swimmer Yusra Mardini doesn’t require to win an Olympic medal to be a hero—she’s already a hero, by any standard. In 2015, along with her sister, she pushed a boat despite it’s engine being stopped for three hours across the Aegean sea, brought 18 fellow refugees who were fleeing Syria via Turkey to safety in Lesbos.