Recent speculations about Saudi Arabia sending women to the Rio 2016 Olympics have been confirmed. This came right after the kingdom’s National Olympic Committee announced the names of seven Saudi Arabian sportsmen heading for Rio 2016, with no sign of female inclusion.
The Saudi Olympic Committee responded to the news breakout about females in Rio by releasing a statement on July 17 about preparing its seven male 2016 Olympians for the big games. However, Reuters reports that a spokesperson declared the committee’s approval of sending four female athletes to the Rio showdown.
According to the Saudi Olympic Committee’s chief executive Hosam Alqurashi, the names of the male and female Olympic team members were announced separately due to sensitivities regarding gender segregation and women in sports.
In two weeks, runner Kariman Abuljadayel, judoka Joud Fahmy and fencer Lubna Al-Omair will become the second batch of female Saudi Olympians. Sarah Attar will be running in Rio 2016 as well, but she already made her Olympic debut at London 2012.
Saudi Olympic sportswomen will compete at the 2016 Olympics through wildcard entries, as they have not fulfilled the entry standards. Qualification remains nearly impossible, considering governing bodies continue to refuse holding sporting competitions or qualifying events for females.
Simply pursuing sports is a feat in and of itself for Saudi women, who are continuously discouraged from exercising. They have few training facilities to access. But this will hopefully change soon, as the kingdom has declared authorizing women's "sports halls" as an aim to be fulfilled by 2020. Still, girls' public school curriculum does not include sports and females are prohibited from attending events in sports stadiums, according to The Telegraph .
“Our society can be very conservative. It has a hard time accepting that women can compete in sports,” Prince Fahad Bin Jalawi Al-Saud, a consultant to the Saudi Olympic Committee, told Francs Jeux. “Wearing sports clothing in public is not really allowed. For these cultural reasons, it is difficult to bid for certain big international events."
Saud was commenting on the kingdom's bizarre suggestion that it could host a men-only Olympic Games, with Bahrain holding the women events. To nobody's surprise, the idea was directly shot down by the International Olympic Committee.
Earlier this year, activists from the hacking collective Anonymous started a petition demanding that the IOC ban Saudi Arabia from the 2016 Olympic Games for violating human rights.
"Banning Saudi Arabia from participating in the Olympic Games will send a clear message that religious Apartheid, including beheading children and minority religious leaders for peaceful political activities, is not compatible with the ideals of the Olympics," stated Anonymous, whose efforts were fruitless.
Four male athletes, a shooter, a judoka and a weightlifter will accompany Saudi Arabia's sportswomen at the Rio Olympics.
Abdullah Abkar has qualified to the 100 meter race, Sultan Al-Dawoodi will partake in the discus throw event, while Tarek Al-Amri and Moukhled Al-Outaibi are headed to the 5,000 meter race. Meanwhile, Atallah Al-Anazi will shoot in the 10 meter air pistol event, Mohsen Dhilib will weight-lift in the 69 kilogram category and Sulaiman Hamad will compete in the judo 66 kilogram division.
The Saudi 2016 Olympians have their eyes set on the kingdom's fourth Olympic podium-finish. Since the 1972 Munich Olympics, Saudi athletes have brought home two bronze Olympic medals for equestrian, along with a silver for athletics. They have also won a gold and two silvers in Paralympic athletic events.