Azad Al-Barazi
Azad Al-Barazi is an American-Syrian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events.The grandson of Kurdish Syrian Prime Minister Muhsin al-Barazi’s cousin, Al-Barazi holds a dual citizenship between his parents' nation Syria and the United States, where he is resides.
Al-Barazi qualified for the men's 100 m breaststroke, as a member of the Syrian team, at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He received a Universality place by posting a personal best of 1:00.35 from the AT&T Winter National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. He challenged seven other swimmers on the second heat, including four-time Olympians Malick Fall of Senegal and Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson of Iceland. He touched out European junior champion Dănilă Artiomov of Moldova to take a seventh spot by 0.09 of a second in 1:00.48. Al-Barazi failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-first overall on the first day of preliminaries.
Al-Barazi has also been a Los Angeles County Lifeguard since 2007 and has competed in several international lifeguard competitions for the United States. He attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology and a minor in sports nutrition. Al-Barazi later became a varsity swimmer for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, before he graduated with honors in 2010.
Al-Barazi is a full-time member of the Trojans Swim Club at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, under his personal coach Dave Salo.
