The Unlikely Champion: A Refugee's Journey to the Commonwealth Games Vicky Belando Nicholson's story is a testament to human resilience in the face of trauma.
Born on a refugee boat that capsized in the Mediterranean, she was just six months old when her mother drowned. Silvio Xerri, the medical officer who pulled her from the water, recalled: "She had no pulse, no breath...
she was like a rag doll. " This near death experience might have shattered most people, but instead it seems to have been a catalyst for Belando Nicholson's journey towards becoming an elite para swimmer.