With the 2016 Rio Olympics just around the corner, Ahmed Rizvi sheds some light on the history of Emirati female participation at the Games.
Read more: Rio 2016 – When the UAE Olympic athletes are scheduled to compete
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Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid
When 2008 Beijing
Event Taekwondo 67kg
Result First round
The Beijing Olympics was a milestone in the sporting history of the country, as it was the first Olympic Games which saw women represent the UAE. There were two on the team, and one of them, Sheikha Maitha, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed, carried the UAE’s flag at the opening ceremony. A tough draw in the women’s 67kg taekwondo, however, meant she could go no further than the opening round, losing to eventual gold medal winner Hwang Kyung-seon of South Korea.
Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed Al Maktoum
When 2008 Beijing
Event Mixed Individual Jumping
Result 54th out 77 riders in first qualifier
A bronze medal winner at the Doha Asian Games, Sheikha Latifa will always be remembered in the history books as the first Emirati woman to qualify for the Olympic Games. She achieved that distinction astride Kalaska De Semilly, clocking 47.72 seconds in the jump-off at the Qatar International Show Jumping Championship in March, 2007. Her appearance at the Beijing Games also made her the second Arab lady after Princess Haya bint al Hussein (2000 Sydney Olympics) to take part in an Olympic equestrian event. So Sheikha Latifa can proudly claim to have opened a few doors for Emirati and Arab women at the Olympics when she placed 54 out 77 riders in the first qualifier of the mixed Individual Jumping.
Khadija Mohammed
When 2012 London
Event Weightlifting -75kg
Result 12th with a total of 113kg
Originally a handball player, Khadija received a pleasant surprise on her 17th birthday when she was told she had been picked for the lone qualifying spot the six-member UAE women’s weightlifting team had earned earlier at the Asian Championships in Korea. The first female weightlifter from the Gulf to compete at the Olympics, Mohammed, however, started feeling homesick in London and asked to return home. Coaxed to stay on, she lifted a total of 113kg to finish 12th, 178kgs behind the gold medal-winning effort of the later disqualified Svetlana Podobedova.
Betlhem Desaleyn
When 2012 London
Event 1,500m
Result 12th in Heat 3 (failed to qualify for semis)
A 1,500m bronze medal winner at the 2011 Doha Pan-Arab Games and silver medallist at the 2012 Asian Indoor Championships in Hangzhou over the same distance, Desaleyn qualified for the London Olympics with a run of 4.08.87 at a meet in Casablanca, Morocco. Desaleyn arrived in London, confident she had a “legitimate chance” of reaching the 1,500 final, but sadly she could clock not better than 4.14.07 in the pre-semi-final Heats 3, to finish 12th. Overall, she was 33rd out of 42 participants in the preliminary rounds.
