Nawal El Moutawakel
.JPG) Nawal El-Mutawakel in 2009 |
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| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's Athletics | ||
Representing  Morocco
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| Olympic Games | ||
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1984 Los Angeles | 400 m hurdles |
| Mediterranean Games | ||
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1983 Casablanca | 400 m hurdles |
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1987 Latakia | 400 m hurdles |
Nawal El Moutawakel (Amazigh: Nawal Lmutawakkil ; Arabic: نوال المتوكل) (born on April 15, 1962 in Casablanca) is a former Moroccan hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first female Muslim born on the continent of Africa to become an Olympic champion. She was also the first Moroccan and the first woman from a Muslim majority country to win an Olympic gold medal. In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco.
Although she had been a quite accomplished runner, the victory of El Moutawakel, who studied at Iowa State University at the time, was a surprise. King Hassan II of Morocco telephoned El Moutawakel to give his congratulations, and he declared that all girls born the day of her victory were to be named in her honor. Her medal also meant the breakthrough for sporting women in Morocco and other mostly Muslim countries.
She was a pioneer for Muslim and Arabic athletes in that she confounded long-held beliefs that women of such backgrounds could not succeed in athletics.
In 1993 she started running for fun, a 5 km run for women in Casablanca that has since become the biggest women’s race held in a Muslim country, with up to 30,000 who came to run.
In 1995, El Moutawakel became a council member of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and in 1998 she became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
El Moutawakel is a member of the International Olympic Committee, and she was the president of evaluation commissions for the selection of the host city for the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Since 2012 she is a Vice-President of the IOC.
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