Mohammed Zeytoun’s formidable strength was discovered at the age of 10, when his mother fell ill.
She was taken from their island home off the Syrian coast to the mainland for care.
Mohammed’s father visited her daily but when a storm struck one day, no boats would take him. He decided to swim the 2.4 kilometres to his sick wife. Concerned, the boy followed his father through the waves.
“So the father went swimming and when he arrives he finds his son behind him,” recalls Zeytoun’s niece, Zahidah Zeytoun. “They went swimming in the waves and this is what we grew up with, how he was brave and strong.”
This year marks 50 years since the death of the three-time world champion who made international headlines as the “Nile Crocodile” before his sudden death in exile.
Streets in Damascus, Cairo and his hometown of Jableh bear the name of the athlete known for his prowess and strong pan-Arabian politics.
Zahidah never knew her uncle but tales of the marathon swimmer who trained by dragging fishing boats in the Mediterranean became part of family lore.
“We grew up on his story because he died just before I was born,” recalls Zahidah, a Syrian artist who lives in Umm Al Quwain.
“My uncle was focused, he knew what he wanted. The family taught us how to challenge ourselves by giving stories about him.”
At her kitchen table, she flips through a worn biography written by his younger brother, Abdulwahab Zeytoun. The World Swimmer Mohammed Zeytoun chronicles his remarkable climb to fame and controversy before he died at the age of 23.
The self-taught swimmer represented the United Arab Republic, winning the 42-kilometre World Cup marathon in Napoli in 1960, 1961 and 1964.
Long-distance swimmers were celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s, and the burly, broad-smiling Zeytoun was a newspaper favourite.
Born on the Mediterranean island of Arwad in 1941, Zeytoun was the second of 12 children in a family of mariners.
After winning a series of local competitions near Jableh, he travelled to Egypt against his father’s wishes for a 40km Nile race, winning the United Arab Republic Cup at 18 in 1959.
“It’s as if he has a motor inside his body,” proclaimed Saleh Gareeb, a swimming club director quoted in one of many Egyptian daily newspapers who exulted the teenager’s achievements.
That July, he finished the international 42km marathon between Saida and Beirut three hours ahead of the next competitor.
He emerged from the sea after 5 hours and 55 minutes, bleeding from his shoulder after a collision with a boat.
Dripping wet and wearing nothing more than a pair of Speedos, he met Lebanese president Fuad Chehab and the two-time prime minister Hussein Al Oweini. Al Oweini wore his trademark fez. Zeytoun wore a swimming cap.
Zeytoun returned home and resumed work as a builder, training before sunrise every morning.
He would swim the 22km between Baniyas and Jableh, tackle five-hour pool sessions and fight the chilly current of Al Sin river for hours on end.
“It was really tough training but it was his training,” says his niece. “Or he would pull a boat. And he loved that.”
As his fame grew, audiences gathered to watch him and his father accepted his talent.
“His dad had started to help him financially, especially for his food,” says Zahidah, recalling stories heard with her cousins.
A few weeks later, Zeytoun represented the United Arab Republic at the World Cup marathon race between Capri and Naples in Italy.
Zeytoun placed third, even after his guide boat led him 12km in the wrong direction.
When he returned a year later, he spent days on a boat going back and forth over the planned route between Capri and Napoli.
“There were some parties and touristy functions he refused, and instead he went between the islands many times because he knew why he had lost the first time and he believed he was cheated,” says Zahidah.
That year’s favourite was the handsome Argentinian swimmer Alfredo Camarero.
In a 1960 newspaper interview, Zeytoun said: “The Italian audience welcomed us in a really cold way and whenever they would see us they would say, ‘Camarero Primo’.”
Zeytoun would shout back: “Zeytoun primo”.
The July race day was miserable. Waves pounded, fog shrouded the coastline and rain poured down. The race went ahead after a three-hour delay. Of 65 swimmers representing 42 countries, 30 withdrew.
But Zeytoun knew the route and was faster than the rowboat sent to guide him. Time and again, he asked his guide how far behind the other swimmers were. Time and again, the guide replied they were 400 metres away.
“So when I hear this I would speed and every time I would ask this, he would say the same thing, ‘400 metres behind’,” he recalled in an article.
He finished in 10 hours, 38 minutes and 48 seconds, more than an hour faster than his competitors, while the crowd chanted “Zeytoun primo”.
The United Arab Republic president Gamal Abdel Nasser gave him the honorary title of dabati, allowing the amateur swimmer to take a military salary.
The first letter of congratulations from Nasser still hangs on the wall of his father’s home in Jableh, beside two wooden cupboards full of medals and trophies won 50 years ago.
He won the World Cup again a year later, overcoming rough seas to break the record by 45 minutes with a time of 8 hours, 45 minutes and 28 seconds.
Radio London dubbed him the Syrian Torpedo and Nasser upgraded his military rank to Mulazim Al Thani.
It was a double victory for the United Arab Republic. The women’s champion was the Egyptian swimmer Suhir El Ba’i, known by her nicknamed El Bawtiah, an Egyptian word for female crocodile.
The pair hit it off and were engaged at the Egyptian embassy in Rome. Engagement photos show the broad-chested swimmer beside his rosy cheeked fiancee posing under Nasser’s portrait.
The public celebrated the world champions as symbols of peace. One poem describes Zeytoun, the olive, “uniting us in the water. We all become Zeytoun in the water”.
An emblem of pan-Arab strength, he appeared in international newspapers and United Arab Republic postage stamps.
Just two months later, the United Arab Republic dissolved on September 28, 1961, when a group of officers staged a coup and declared Syria independent.
Zeytoun was outspoken about the division and refused to represent Syria at the 1962 World Cup. Syrian media said he lacked the strength to compete. Sports associations said they could not finance his travel to Italy.
Italy offered to sponsor him, with or without Syrian approval. Banned from leaving his country, Zeytoun travelled in secret to Lebanon and on to Egypt.
The Syrian press announced that he faced imprisonment upon his returned. Zeytoun the hero had become a fugitive.
In Egypt, the media debated the consequences of his World Cup participation for Syrian-Egyptian relations. In the end, Zeytoun did not compete.
Nasser, still president, offered his full support and ordered the head of the army to look after him. “Any time you need me, I’ll be there,” says a letter from Nasser to Zeytoun. “You can come to me anytime.”
Zeytoun was given a security escort until tensions eased after the Syrian Ba’ath party seized power in the 1963 coup.
He returned to the water, winning the 50km International Suez Canal competition in 1963 and the Capri-Napoli marathon World Cup for a third time in 1964.
Just as things seemed to improve, he was killed.
Zeytoun and four passengers died when their vehicle hit a wall on their way to a competition near Ismailia. A sixth passenger, Rajab Ali, was paralysed.
Instead of the planned athletes’ parade the town had a funeral procession.
Five white cars carried the bodies of Zeytoun, the Syrian swimmer Hasan Naeem, the Egyptian swimmer Saeed Abduljalill and the long distance trainers Mahmoud Aman and Kamal Abdulrahman. The Vatican prayed for the athletes. Zeytoun’s body was returned to his hometown of Jableh.
His grave is at the centre of a roundabout on the Corniche. Just down the road, his father’s house still holds his trophies and letters.
“We learnt from my uncle’s story that if you want to achieve something in life and the whole world is against you, be honest with yourself and those around you, work hard and keep focus,” says Zahidah.
“Then the whole world will turn to be with you and you will reach what you want.”
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