By Tomi Lala
First African and Arab Woman to win Olympic Gold.
Imagine being the only female athlete in your team’s Olympic delegation.
There’s focus on you, as you battle the fear of failure and expectation to perform and validate your inclusion. That was the position Nawal El Moutawakel found herself in at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
Competing in the women’s 400m hurdles, an event that had just been introduced at the Games for the first time for females. It took Nawal El Moutawakel 54 seconds, 10 hurdles and 400 metres to win Morocco’s first Olympic gold medal in the first ever women’s 400m hurdles at the Olympic Games.
In 54 seconds, she became the first African and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold and paved the way for many African and Arab women to not only take part in sporting activities, but also compete at the highest level.
El Moutawakel was born in Casablanca, Morocco on 15 April 1962 into a family passionate about sports. Her father was a judoka, her mother a volleyball player, and her siblings also used to do athletics.
She started running at an early age and her father used to watch her train.Like most of the athletes, she started with cross country races before switching to sprints and later the 400m hurdles, an event which was inaugurated at the World Championships in 1980 and was finally added to the Olympic programme in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games.
It was perfect timing for El Moutawakel as she received a scholarship in 1983 to attend the Iowa State University in the USA to pursue her physical education and physiotherapy studies.
Her father, who was her No.1 supporter, had some hard times accepting that his daughter was leaving for a faraway country, but knew that it was the best decision for her future.
Before she left, he told her: “You’ve won everything, you still have to win this Olympic gold.”
A week later, three months prior to her Olympic race, he passed away.El Moutawakel, who was in top form, received the news a month later.
Despite the huge sadness she felt, the 21-year-old wanted to win this medal for him.
‘I used this as a force, saying to myself in the mirror, you should win for your father because he let you leave, because he believed in you’ she said.
“Reaching the Olympic level was a dream, but I never thought that one day it will become a reality”.
“I remember in 1984, when I was the only woman in the team, and I was wondering then why there were no women journalists, in my Moroccan team.
Why were there no women coaches, referees, or a woman as a leader in the team?” she reflected in an interview with Olympics.com at the Laureus
World Sports Awards 2024 nominations announcement inp Madrid.
Her first Olympic experience lives long in her memory, and inspired her push for gender equality in sport.
“It is a historical moment that will forever stay in my mind and in my heart”.
Credits: World athletics.org , Laureus Sports.
