By Lojeen Odeh
Nelly Karim laughs easily. It comes quickly for her and fills the pauses between sentences, softening the seriousness of what she says. It is a sound her teammates recognize, familiar and grounding, whether they hear it on deck before a race or in passing on campus.
A senior electrical engineering student and captain of the American University of Sharjah swimming team, Karim has spent 17 years shifting between demanding worlds and carrying her own discipline quietly.
Most people, she says, underestimate just how much dedication that balance commands.
“They cannot understand the dedication you have to put into the sport and into the student-life balance,” Karim says.
“They think it’s easy until it’s time to actually do it.”
Her days reflect that tension. This semester, she flows from engineering labs to swimming practice, and then to rehearsals for Global Day where she performed as a dancer for the Egyptian Cultural Club. Swimming no longer fills her days, but it stills anchors her.
“It’s my safe space,” she says.
“It’s where my mind can go blank and I can just focus on my body and my training.”
However, as graduation is approaching, the structure she has known for most of her life is beginning to dissolve.
“After you graduate, you don’t know where you go from there.”
“It’s just me and the water. There is no path anymore. I just have to figure it out,” she says with a smile that hints at optimism, even as uncertainty flickers with what awaits her.
That uncertainty has reshaped how she has come to understand strength. When she was younger, Karim used to believe strength was defined as enduring everything without ever showing weakness. Now, she sees it differently.
“Strength is about breaking down and getting back up again. You don’t have to be strong the entire time; you just need to restart.”
This lesson was forged early on. Growing up in an environment of competitive swimming, Karim was often underestimated. As a child, a coach once told her parents that although she was good at swimming, “it will never get her anywhere in the sport.”
“Teaching her not to drown should be enough.”
Years later, the same coach had returned, asking her to join the team.
Moments like those had stayed with her, guided her own growth.
“People don’t see the effort,” she says, about being a woman in competitive swimming.
“They see the swimsuit, the stereotypes. None of the actual work.”
She described the unequal attention from coaches over the years, ill-intent assumptions about her potential, and the added pressure of constantly having to prove yourself.
“You compete with women and men at the same time; you work twice as hard for half as much,” she says.
Over time, protecting her mental health became just as important as physical training. She decided in order to maintain her position she has to stop caring about everyone’s opinions.
“I care about my parents, my close friends, and people whose feedback I trust,” she says.
Otherwise, the unadded noise of unsolicited advice will affect her well-being, and swimming is more mental than physical.
Leadership followed her naturally. As AUS team captain, she made it a rule to never lead with authority when guiding with care yields the same results.
“This is a family, not just a team,” she says.
She mentions that if there is anything her teammates can carry with them after she is gone, it is that progress does not always have to be perfect or rushed.
“You can do it slowly and still reach a very good result.”
Away from competitions, her softness continues. With her sisters, Karim becomes lighter.
“We act more like friends,” she laughs.
“There is bickering, of course, but there’s a lot of laughter.”
This is the version of herself that she values the most, relaxed and present with the people she holds closest.
Looking ahead five years, success looks quieter to Karim than it once did. She hopes to find work she is passionate about, continue swimming and feel content with the life she is building.
When asked what she hopes people will remember about her after graduation, she does not mention medals or titles.
She says, “I hope they remember that conversations with me were nice, that we laughed.”
Out of the water, beyond the lanes and expectations, Nelly Karim is constantly learning that becoming herself has never been about constant strength, but about staying present even when the path ahead of her is still unfolding.
