Girls swimming: Prairie Ridge grad Valerie Tarazi to compete in 2024 Olympics for Palestine

When the door closed on her collegiate swimming career at Auburn, others opened for Prairie Ridge graduate Valerie Tarazi.

One led her to competing for Palestine, the homeland of her grandfather, which took her to competing in the 2023 Arab Games. That experience ultimately is sending her to the 2024 Olympic Games this month in Paris.

The short-term benefits of Tarazi swimming for Palestine will provide lifetime memories of being an Olympian. The long-term advantages will affect the rest of her life, as she will stay at Auburn, pursue a doctorate in humanitarian supply chain and continue swimming in international competitions.

First comes Paris.

“It’s been my dream my whole life,” Tarazi said. “I’m really excited for the whole experience. It still doesn’t feel real. I got the official word [July 1].”

Tarazi, who trained with the Tigers’ swimming team while finishing her master’s degree in supply chain this year, left for Paris on Monday with Auburn associate head coach Vlad Polyakov, who will coach Palestine’s two entries, Tarazi and male swimmer Yazan Bawwab. She will compete in the 200-meter individual medley Aug. 2.

Tarazi won gold medals in the 50-meter breaststroke and 100 backstroke, along with silvers in the 50 butterfly, 100 and 200 breaststrokes and the 50 backstroke at last year’s Arab Games. She holds 11 Palestinian national records, nine of which are in individual races.

During her senior year at Prairie Ridge, Tarazi won her third Northwest Herald Girls Swimmer of the Year honor and also competed in track and field. She was selected as the Northwest Herald Female Athlete of the Year before heading to Auburn.

The 24-year-old qualified for the Olympics by competing in two world championships meets, one in Fukuoka, Japan, and one in Doha, Qatar. She had the highest World Aquatics (formerly known as FINA) points of any Palestinian female swimmer.

Kamel Tarazi, Valerie’s grandfather, was born and raised in Gaza, which has been embroiled in conflict between Israel and Hamas since October. Kamel Tarazi came from Palestine to the U.S. with his brothers to attend college and stayed here.

There are still Tarazi family members in Palestine and a home in Rafah, which has been in the family since 1755 and to which Gavin Tarazi, Valerie’s older brother, has rights as the only male on his side of the family.

“First and foremost, my goal [at the Olympics] is to represent Palestine and honor my family, just with everything going on, just showing up to this meet is a statement in itself,” Tarazi said. “There’s been a lot of political issues around the topic, and that’s my first and foremost.

“Swimming-wise, I just want to have a great time, a great experience. I’m not expecting anything crazy, but I’ve been training six months just for this event, so I expect to go best time and show up and swim fast.”

Marty and Jana Tarazi, Valerie’s parents, left recently for a trip to Amsterdam and will take a cruise of the fjords before heading to Paris. Gavin will join them there for the Olympics.

“They’ve never seen me in an international competition,” Valerie Tarazi said. “This is the first one. Just being able to look up at them in the stands will be a very calming moment.”

Tarazi has enjoyed traveling to international competitions with Bawwab, who has a fascinating personal story.

“He’s a refugee. His family had property where the Tel Aviv Airport was,” Tarazi said. “They got kicked out so they could build the airport. His father went to Italy, and he was born in Saudi Arabia, has Italian citizenship, Palestinian citizenship and lives in Dubai. He has to bounce all over.

“We traveled to every meet together, which is awesome. We have some other people on the team who travel with us.”

Tarazi was thrilled to continue working out with her Auburn coaches and teammates, training for international competitions while completing her master’s work. Initially, Tarazi thought the Olympics might be her last competitive swimming, but that changed last summer.

She will swim in the Indoor Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, in November and in the world championships in Budapest, Hungary, in December.

“There’s nothing bigger stage, no bigger accomplishment that you can achieve. But I’ve had the coolest opportunities in the past year swimming for Palestine,” she said. “I found a completely new love for the sport. My coach here at Auburn has made it so much fun.

“I was able to travel to Switzerland and be part of the Palestinian delegation and represent them on all aspects of sports. I met with the International Olympic Committee president, and we discussed anything from funding and rebuilding infrastructure, and we also met with the secretary general of FIFA and the secretary of UEFA [Union of European Football Associations]. I got to meet with a bunch of ambassadors.”

The experience opened Tarazi’s eyes to furthering her education and then doing something where she can help others who are less fortunate.

“Swimming is just the beginning of all of this,” said Tarazi, who received the Palestinian Presidential Medal of Freedom and Honor last August. “I will be getting my PhD in supply chain here at Auburn. It will be in humanitarian supply chain – delivering aid to developing countries.”