Maraana said: "I am Israeli and come from a mixed city, and things like this happen when a Jew marries a Muslim woman and vice versa. The beauty of this city, in this country where there is so much mixing."[6][2][1]
He served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in the Israeli Navy, turning down an exemption from the draft as a member of the Arab community.[6][2][1] Maraana said: "Even though I could get away with it because my father is Arab-Muslim, I didn't choose to use it, and I wanted to contribute my part – everyone joins the army, so why shouldn't I join? I didn't want to feel different, and I came to contribute."[2][1]
When I stood at the podium after the Israeli championships and heard the [Israeli] national anthem, tears fell from my eyes. At the multi-nation competition where I was first on the podium, I took the flag and held it tight. I sang the national anthem proudly, and said it was the craziest moment in my life.[6][2][1]
2019–23; European U-23 championship bronze medal
At the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival, Maraana won a bronze medal at 16 years old in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the 100m backstroke in a time of 56.63.[13][14] In 2020 at the 54e Challenge International de Geneve in Switzerland, he won the gold medal in the 50 back with a time of 57.16, and the silver medal in the 200 back with a time of 2:06.29.[3] At the 2020 Israeli Olympic Qualification Meet at the Wingate Institute, at 17 years old he won the gold medal in the backstroke as he swam a time of 55.64.[15]
At the 2021 Union Cup in Israel, at 18 years of age Maraana set a new Israeli junior record in the 100 back with a time of 55.07.[16] At the 2022 Malmsten Swim Open Stockholm in Sweden, he won the gold medal in the 50 back in a time of 25.98.[3]
Maraana won a bronze medal in the 2023 European U-23 Swimming Championships in Dublin, Ireland, in the 50 back with a time of 25.30.[17][4] At the same competition he swam the 100 back in 54.31, coming in fifth.[3][4] He won a bronze medal at the 2023 Israeli Championships in the 100 back in a time of 54.92.[14]
2024–present; Israeli record
Maraana in 2024
In January 2024, at the 57th Challenge International de Geneve in Switzerland, Maraana won the gold medal in the 50 back, with a time of 25.65.[14] In April 2024, at the Eindhoven Qualification Meet in the Netherlands, he won the gold medal in the 100 back in a time of 54.62. He also won a bronze medal in the 50 back with a time of 25.34, which through July 2024 was the third-fastest Israeli time at the distance.[18][19][20][3]
In June 2024, at 20 years of age he won the 100 back gold medal at the Israeli Olympic Trials with a time in the preliminaries of 53.60 at the Wingate Institute.[21][7][3] Maraana's time matched the Israeli record set by Olympian Yakov Toumarkin seven years earlier.[3] He qualified to swim in the 100 back in the 2024 Paris Olympics, as he swam faster than the Olympic 'A' cut of 53.74.[3] He said: "I surprised myself. I'm very happy."[3][22]
His best personal time in the 100 back is 53.24, which Maraana swam in 2021 at 18 years of age.[24]
Maraana says that in this dark time he believes that he can succeed as a goodwill "mini-ambassador".[2][25] He said: "I'm proud to represent Israel, I feel a bit like a mini-ambassador, and I'm proud of it. As someone who came out of the Arab community and considers himself Israeli, I am the best proof of the integration of both communities."[8]
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