MUREZ Andrea

General
COMPETING FOR ISRAEL
Her grandfather Joe Murez moved from Austria to the United States of America in 1938. She was born and raised in the United States of America and in 2009 she travelled to Israel for the first time, participating in the 'Israel Connect' programme and the Maccabiah Games. "We came as a family to Israel and the trip gave me my first taste of what would become part of my future. I competed once again in the 2013 [Maccabiah] Games and I was approached by one of the Israeli swimmers who said that I should consider moving to Israel and swim here. That planted seeds of what an amazing opportunity it would be to move to Israel and represent the country." In 2014 she decided to move to Israel and applied for Israeli citizenship, and she became eligible to compete for Israel from December 2015. "I immigrated to Israel in 2014 and immediately felt at home. The members of the team happily welcomed me and were excited to swim with me. It was a great feeling to hear my name and see the Israeli flags at the pool knowing that I had an entire country behind me." (swimmingworldmagazine.com, 15 Aug 2015; timesofisrael.com, 20 Apr 2015; maccabiusa.com, 01 Aug 2015; jpost.com, 19 Jul 2019; mako.co.il, 04 Jul 2020)

EARLY DAYS
She did not enjoy swimming until age 12, when competition became more serious. "I didn't really like swimming. When I was learning how to swim at age three or four, I hated the water. I would scream when my parents would want me to go past the first step." (The West Way to Swim YouTube channel, 04 Jun 2015)

FURTHER EDUCATION
After completing a degree in human biology at Stanford University in the United States of America, she began studying at Tel Aviv University Medical School [Sackler School of Medicine] in Israel. (Instagram profile, 17 Dec 2020; jpost.com, 19 Jul 2019; forward.com, 02 Aug 2016)