BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — As a boy growing up in Milwaukee, Ziyad Saleem would walk around his house imitating the backstroke, putting one arm behind his right ear and over his shoulder, then doing the same with the other arm to the left.
One day, he even thrust his arms forward in a butterfly stroke, and his father realized his true potential outside of the water.
“I was always asking, 'Hey, what are you doing?'” Mohammed Saleem recalled. “He was trying to improve his range of motion, trying to master how to pull in the water. I knew he was into it.”
With his passion for swimming surging, Salim began dreaming big.
Little did his father know, it would actually mean something very special to his family: The University of California swimmer would compete in the Paris Olympics representing Sudan, his parents' home country and the country where most of his relatives fled due to war and a massive humanitarian crisis.
“Words cannot describe the feeling I have,” Mohamed Saleem said of his son representing Sudan.
Many people don't think of swimming in the same breath as Sudan, but it's athletes like Salim who have put the sport on the map in this North African country with a long coastline on the Red Sea.
Salim was given lavish treatment after winning a medal in Tunisia five years ago, one of his country's major international successes.
Imagine the triumph when Salim won the 200m backstroke at the African Championships in May, earning Sudan's first swimming gold medal. He cherished the moment on the podium as the national anthem played. And he got to do it again when he won the 100m backstroke.
“It's really amazing to be the first Sudanese to win a medal and be at the top of the sport,” Saleem said. “For me, it's more important than anything to bring back what I learned in the U.S. and all the training and high-level swimming I'm able to do here and teach it back to Sudan. I'm helping coach at the World Championships and trying to teach them the tips I learned in the U.S. I think the most important thing is to spread what I learned in the U.S. back to Sudan so the kids can learn and become better swimmers.”
Far from the turmoil in Sudan, Salim is embracing his new life in the diverse Bay Area, swimming hour after hour, set after set, every day at the University of California's pool next to the glamorous American Olympian Ryan Murphy.
Every once in a while, Saleem will surprise Murphy and beat him during a backstroke warm-up. Even if it's just practice and there's no pressure of competition, it's always fun to take on a gold medalist.
“Sometimes, when he's warming up and taking it easy, he waits for the next set and really beats me,” Saleem said with a smile.
For Saleem, it's hard to believe he's in the water alongside former world record holder Murphy. It wasn't meant to be. He had committed to the University of Iowa, but COVID-19 shut down the Hokies' program and his college career path was suddenly uncertain.
“So I had nothing and nowhere to go,” he recalled.
But when Saleem began shaving seconds off each event early in his senior year, Cal took notice. He joined the team without meeting or speaking to anyone.
The program's reputation and mentorship gave him all the information he needed, not to mention the chance to share the pool with Murphy and many other international greats.
“Just being around world-class athletes and people like Murph, I knew it was a place I'd really enjoy,” Saleem said. “I learned so much from him, what to do in and out of the water, his advice. He's a great guy to help out. When I first got here, it was really surreal just seeing him in the water. But now that I've developed a relationship with him, it hasn't faded and I still respect him so much. A big reason he chose to come to UC was because he wanted to be around world record holders that he could train with every day.”
Murphy also loves swimming with Saleem.
“Ziyad is great, he's one of the best players I've ever worked out with at Cal,” Murphy said. “He's a bright personality and a hard worker.”
Saleem was born in Milwaukee but has dual citizenship, meaning he can represent both his parents' home countries at the Olympics, and Mohamed Saleem will always cherish the opportunity to watch his son compete for Sudan.
“We have a great community here in Milwaukee, and we're all so proud of him, and now that he's a father, it's just 50,000 times more,” Mohamed Saleem said. “When we say you don't think of Sudan when you think of swimming, they don't think of it either. So that was a big surprise when he actually competed for the first time and won a medal for his country. … It brought a lot of attention to swimming and what it could be.”
Salim has experience on the big stage at multiple World Championships, but this will be his first Olympic appearance.
He was given a free entry, one per country, and qualified for the Olympics in his best events, the 100m backstroke and the 200m backstroke, exempting him from the minimum qualification requirements.
“I just want to increase my speed and try to reach the semi-finals. That's my goal,” he said ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Saleem has been to Sudan a few times and got to know some of his Sudanese teammates just by competing in tournaments together, and they keep in touch despite training in different parts of the world, but it's the Americans at the University of California he knows best.
Most of his family left Sudan.
“Because of the war, they all migrated to Egypt. In June (last year), they were all in Sudan, but now they're all in Egypt because of what's going on (in Sudan),” he said. “There are some in the Middle East. There might still be one or two in Sudan, but the rest are gone.”
His father emigrated to the United States in the 1990s and his mother in the early 2000s.
They can't wait to see him compete alongside Murphy and the other stars in Paris.
What lessons has Saleem taught Murphy during their training battles and their time together in the pool?
“I don't know if it's a big deal,” Saleem said, “but I'm just trying to work as hard as I can (backstroke) and just try to be a good person in and out of the water with him.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-Paris-Olympics
