By Alexandra Krauska
Rabat – Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer, is the first hijabi athlete in the Olympics, making her Olympic debut this year in Rio. Muhammad specializes in the saber, and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2016.
“I remember, as a kid, always being at competitions, and no one looked like me,” Muhammad said in an interview with E Sports.
She began wearing the hijab in middle school. Her father had always encouraged her to pursue sports, so she began looking for a sport that would allow her to stay covered and still fit in with her teammates. She tried sports like swimming, track, and tennis, but none of her teammates dressed like she did.
After driving past a local high school, her mother noticed the fencing team’s conservative dress, and suggested that as another option. Ibtihaj said that “it was this unique opportunity for me to not have to change the uniform and not have to almost change a part of who I was in order to fit in with the sport.”
Her journey has not been without struggle, however. Muhammad’s career began a few years before the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and since then, she has experienced increasing Islamophobia and racial profiling.
She made the US national team in 2010. “When Team USA marches into the next Olympics, one of the Americans waving the red, white and blue will be a fencing champion wearing her hijab,” announced President Obama. “I told her to bring home the gold.”
