West Ventura News

Student-Athlete Spotlight Dania Nour is a first-year majoring in Exercise Science. This is her first year on the Cal Lutheran swim team. As an international student from Palestine, Dania chose Cal Lutheran because she enjoys the California weather and wanted to attend a university with an Olympic-sized long-course pool.
Dania has competed in many international competitions, most notably the 2018 Asian Games, the 2019 World Aquatics Championship, and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo where she represented Palestine and raised the Palestinian flag at the opening ceremony of the event. Dania has found her Cal Lutheran team welcoming and competed in the SCIAC championships last month.

Dania shares, “My focus and discipline can be traced back to my early childhood in Palestine as I used to wake up at 4:30 am in the winter months to cross Israeli military checkpoints to train, as pools in Palestine would not operate during these months due to financial issues.”

With her first Cal Lutheran season coming to a close a few weeks ago, Dania has made some improvements on her swimming numbers and participated in the SCIAC championships.

After graduation, Dania is planning to continue her studies and get a master's degree. “I love sports and I want to remain involved. I wish one day to open a qualified sport center at my home town Palestine. The main focus of sports science is simply the relationship between exercise and the human body. I would love to be part of helping people in Palestine to improve their sporting performance, recover from injuries or better their general health and wellbeing.”

Original source can be found here.