Sara El Bekri is by no means the best swimmer on the Arizona Wildcats swim team.
She is, however, among the most interesting.
El Bekri, a senior, grew up in Casablanca, Morocco. At 18, she moved to France for college. After four years, she transferred to the UA, paying her own way to swim for one year.
Here are five things that make El Bekri stand out:
She chose the Wildcats, in part for their international flavor.
"They understand what being far from home is," she said, "but they create a new home for everybody here."
After four years of college in France, the 22-year-old will finish her industrial engineering major this year at the UA.
"I was looking for one of the best swim teams in the States," she said. "They have a good program. They have a good school."
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She's an Olympian
El Bekri swam for Morocco in the 2008 Beijing Games.
"The most exciting part was to be an athlete and considered like all athletes there," she said. "It was so nice in the village to have people taking care of you because you're an athlete, no matter if you're a champion or not."
The best part? El Bekri improved her personal-best time of 1 minute 11seconds in the 100-meter breast stroke to 1:08.6.
She's the second exchange student on the swim team in two years
Last year, the Wildcats accepted Arthur Raffard, a French freestyler, who, like El Bekri, attended college at INSA Lyon in France.
UA coach Frank Busch doesn't necessarily see the exchange student trend continuing. If the Wildcats love a foreign high schooler, he said, they would give him or her a full scholarship. As it is, exchange students pay their own way for one year.
"The only problem I see is the amount of money it costs someone to do that," Busch said. "That would be difficult on any family."
She speaks five languages
El Bekri grew up speaking Arabic and French at home, where her mom is a Moroccan university professor and her dad works at a bank.
In addition, she speaks English, Spanish and some Chinese.
"Here, I can practice the language I wanted to improve," she said. "It's definitely been hard, to talk a new language and learn a new culture. But it was totally worth it."
No, she hasn't seen the movie
When people hear of El Bekri's hometown, they inevitably ask the question. The answer is, she hasn't seen "Casablanca" - yet.
"I have it on my laptop," she said, "so it's on my to-watch list."
