Mariam Binsaleh, a Saudi doctor, refugee advocate, and licensed endurance swimmer becomes the first woman and Arab to swim across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, covering a distance of 160 kilometers from Tiran Island to Sharm El Sheikh.
In the project, which was a part of Coral Swim, Binladen swam alongside environmentalist Lewis Pugh and Egyptian swimmer Mostafa Zaki to campaign for climate action to safeguard the oceans and coral reefs ahead of COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh.
This most recent accomplishment is only one more triumph in Binladen’s swimming career. 2015’s Hellespont Open Water Competition in Turkey, which was also her first international competition, saw her become the first Arab woman to swim from Europe to Asia. In addition, she was the first female both the first swimmer to finish a 24 km race from Dubai Creek to the Dubai Water Canal in the UAE in less than nine hours and to swim the entire length of the River Thames in London in 2016 over ten days.
Due to her dedication to Syrian refugees, the athlete now serves as an advocate. She collaborated with the UNHCR to continually draw attention to their predicament and had already started a dentistry clinic in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees.
