Ziyad Saleem is a Sudanese American student at UC Berkeley and he’s competing in the summer Olympics, but not for team USA. Saleem is swimming for Sudan — a country that has sent swimmers to the Olympics before — but these games, it’s a very different reality.
Sudan is in the midst of a war, with 8 million people displaced. So this year, athletes representing Sudan are refugees or members of the diaspora.
And one of them is Saleem - a rising senior at Cal.
Between being a student and an athelete, it was difficult to catch him for an interview, but a small window opened up and I caught up with him on the phone in my car, right before he left for Paris.
Saleem competes July 31st in the 200m backstroke heat
