Asmahan Farhat (born Mercedes Farhat on May 1, 1990Asmahan Farhat
at the Beijing Olympics) is a Libyan-American

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. Born in

Strongsville, Ohio Strongsville is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, its population was 46,491. The city's nickname, Crossroads of the Nation, originated from the intersection between the Baltimore a ...

, a suburb of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, she began training with the

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

Silver Dolphins before moving down to

Marco Island, Florida Marco Island is a city and barrier island in Collier County, Florida, south of Naples on the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is the largest barrier island in Southwest Florida's Ten Thousand Islands area, which extends southerly to Cape Sa ...

at age 11, where she began swimming with her father for the local swim team and with her sister at the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. She graduated from

Lely High School Lely High School is a four-year public high school located in Lely Resort, Collier County, Florida, about southeast of Downtown Naples. The school serves Naples Manor, Marco Island, Lely, Verona Walk, and some unincorporated areas of Col ...

in 2008, and broke numerous school and conference records while taking home district and regional titles during her time at the high school. In 2005, Farhat's father, Kamal, convinced her to swim for

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. As a result, she changed her name to Asmahan (in honor of her aunt) and applied for dual citizenship. Farhat represented Libya at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. She was the fourth woman ever to swim for Libya at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, following Amira Edrahi at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

and

Nadia Fezzani Nadia Fezzani is a Canadian journalist/author who has conducted extensive research about and interviews with many notorious American serial killers. She is known in Europe as having interviewed American serial killer Richard Cottingham for a Frenc ...

and Soad Fezzani in the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. She won her heat in the

women's 100 metre breaststroke A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

event, with a time of 1:21.68, but finished 47th overall and did not advance. Her time was a new personal best. She began studying at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

a few days after competing in Beijing, and became a sister of

Alpha Omicron Pi Alpha Omicron Pi (, AOII, Alpha O) is an international sorority founded on January 2, 1897, at Barnard College on the campus of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage "AO ...

sorority. She is also a member of the Florida Cicerones. In Fall of 2012 she began the Doctor of Pharmacy Program at

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is the academic health sciences campus in Aurora, Colorado that houses the University of Colorado's six health sciences-related schools and colleges, including the University of Colorado Schoo ...

. She graduated as a

Doctor of Pharmacy A Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD; Neo-Latin: ''Pharmaciae Doctor'') is a professional doctorate in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a proficient graduate degree to practice the profession of pharmacy or to become a clinical pharmacist. In many co ...

in 2016 and continued her career at

Walgreens Walgreens is an American pharmacy store chain. It is the second largest in the United States, behind CVS Pharmacy. As of March 2025, the company operated more than 8,700 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has been the subject of a number of lawsuit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farhat, Asmahan 1990 births Living people Libyan female swimmers Olympic swimmers for Libya Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Strongsville, Ohio University of Florida alumni University of Colorado alumni 21st-century Libyan sportswomen

See also

References