Saudi Arabia at the 2012 Summer Olympics
| Saudi Arabia at the 2012 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | KSA | ||||||||
| NOC | Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website |
olympic |
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| in London | |||||||||
| Competitors | 19 in 5 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer |
Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi (opening) Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (closing) |
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Medals Ranked 79th |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Saudi Arabia competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's tenth appearance at the Olympics, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, because of its partial support to the United States boycott.
The Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee sent the nation's largest delegation to the Games after the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Saudi Arabia also made a historic Olympic record by having two female athletes in the team for the first time, along with seventeen men playing for five different sports. Six athletes had competed in Beijing, including discus thrower Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi, who became the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Saudi Arabia left London with only a bronze medal, won by the equestrian team members Ramzy Al Duhami, Abdullah Al Saud, Kamal Bahamdan, and Abdullah Sharbatly in show jumping.
In the previous games, Saudi Arabia had always sent exclusively male teams. Women's participation in sports is greatly restricted within the country, and Saudi Arabia does not permit women to compete in the Olympics. In June 2010, the International Olympic Committee said it would "press" Saudi Arabia (along with Qatar and Brunei) to "send female athletes to the 2012 Olympic Games for the first time".Anita DeFrantz, chair of the IOC's Women and Sports Commission, suggested that the country be barred from participating in the Olympics until it agrees to send women athletes to the Games. In July, Qatar announced that it would include women in its delegation to the 2012 Games, thus "increas[ing] pressure on Saudi Arabia" to do the same. The BBC remarked that "London 2012 may therefore see Saudi women Olympians for the first time. If not, it is conceivable the Kingdom may not be allowed to enter an all-male team".
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