Nawal El Moutawakel

Medal record
Women's Athletics
Competitor for  Morocco
Olympic Games
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	400m Hurdles
Mediterranean Games
Gold	1983 Casablanca	400m Hurdles
Gold	1987 Latakia	400m Hurdles

Nawal El Moutawakel (Arabic: نوال المتوكل‎) (born on April 15, 1962 in Casablanca) is a Moroccan hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 m hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first female Muslim born on the continent of Africa to become an Olympic champion.^[1] She was also the first Moroccan and the first woman from a Muslim majority country to win an Olympic gold medal.^[2] In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco.

Although she had been a quite accomplished runner, the victory of El Moutawakel, who studied at Iowa State University at the time, was a surprise. The King of Morocco telephoned El Moutawakel to give his congratulations, and he declared that all girls born the day of her victory were to be named in her honor.^[3] Her medal also meant the breakthrough for sporting women in Morocco and other mostly Muslim countries.

She was a pioneer for Muslim and Arabic athletes in that she confounded long-held beliefs that women of such backgrounds could not succeed in athletics.^[4]

In 1995, El Moutawakel became a council member of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), and in 1998 she became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

El Moutawakel is a member of the International Olympic Committee, and she was the president of evaluation commissions for the selection of the host city for the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.^[5]

In 2006, El Moutawakel was one of the eight bearers of the Olympic flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Turin, Italy.

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Morocco
1982	African Championships	Cairo, Egypt	2nd	100 m	11.7 s
			1st	100 m hurdles	13.8 s
			1st	400 m hurdles	58.42 s

References

1. ^ Billings, Andrew C. (2008). Olympic media. New York: Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 0415772508. http://books.google.com/books?id=OGndq_P4C44C&pg=PA2&dq=taiwan+winter+olympics+boycott&ei=gRHBSfrqJ4PGlQSjpIXHDg#PPA3,M1. Retrieved 2009-03-20. 
2. ^ Nawal El Moutawakel Wise Muslim Women. Retrieved 09 April 2011
3. ^ Olympic report
4. ^ Benchrif, Mohamed (1999-03-11). Nawal El Moutawakel - Pioneer and militant for Progress. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-03-31.
5. ^ IOC Announces 2016 Summer Games Evaluation Commission

External links

• International Olympic Committee profile

Preceded by Dot Richardson

Flo Hyman Memorial Award 2003

Succeeded by Kristi Yamaguchi

Persondata
Name	El Moutawakel, Nawal
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1962-04-15
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death