Back in 2015, with his native Syria in the full throes of civil war, Maso had little choice but to leave if he wanted to pursue a career in swimming. Hailing from Aleppo, a major battleground in the war, he was going for months on end without training. "It always had to depend on how safe the situation was and what the priorities were," he said. And so, together with older brother, Mo, he took the long and arduous journey to Europe via Turkey.
"I was evacuated on April 16, very reluctantly. I came to Ireland as a student to finish my education, but the main reason I came here was so that my life might be saved."
"From there, it unfortunately did develop into a homicide investigation," Sacramento County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Sgt. Amar Gandhi told reporters last week. "Detectives believed that he had been murdered."