Her entrance mattered more, as the New Jersey native became the first American athlete to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab, or a traditional headscarf for Muslim women.
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If Muhammad is still discouraged by Monday’s 15-12 loss to France’s Cecilia Berder, she can take solace that the sting will someday fade. ‘It’s just been a really remarkable experience’.
“I feel like its been a blessing to represent so many people who don’t have any voices and don’t speak up”, Muhammad said. She has appeared on Stephen Colbert’s show, was invited to the White House to celebrate Eid with the Obamas (where she gave the First Lady impromptu lessons in how to parry and thrust with a sabre) and is an ambassador for the State Department’s Empowering Women and Girl Through Sport initiative. “I want to challenge the misconceptions not only outside the Muslim community, but also within the Muslim community”.
“I realize this moment is bigger than just me”, she said when it ended. “If you can control yourself and your nerves and emotions, and execute actions the way you want to execute them, you’ll always be successful”. “I failed to do that today”.
Well, the attacks made against the Khan family by Donald Trump were inexcusable and wrong.
“It’s a very slippery slope when you use hateful rhetoric, when you openly use bigoted comments towards a group of people and you encourage violence, so I’m hoping that the rhetoric changes and changes fast”, she told reporters in Rio. “It is an unhealthy one”.
Muhammad, a fencer for Team USA, competed in a women’s individual sabre competition’s round of 32, against Ukraine’s Olena Kravatska. She backed the American to the back end of the piste.
With that small gesture, Muhammad made history.
Mostly her face would have disappeared in the montage of head shots the US Olympic Committee publishes of all 554 athletes who are here, barely recognizable in the mosaic that is America.
Muhammad took on the sport of fencing particularly because of her devotion to her faith.
“I have worn the hijab for 10 years”, El-Ghobashy said to The Associated Press.
Not just a gifted athlete, Muhammad holds two bachelor’s degrees from Duke University in International Relations and African and African-American studies. “Those are the things I want people to be aware of”.
She described the prejudice that Muslim women face in the USA when wearing a hijab, and said that she hoped to “change the conservation” regarding American Muslims by complicating preconceived notions. There are people who don’t have access to food or water on a daily basis, but I know when the sun goes down I can eat and drink.
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“She told me she liked the sport and she started developing, started getting better, I start seeing all these big trophies in the house, and I was, ‘Boom!'” You actually did it.’ You guys see medals and happy moments we post on Instagram but there are so many moments of crying and injuries and missing your family; those are the moments we experience over four years. Ranked No. 8 in the world in her event, Muhammad then lost to a French fencer ranked No. 9 and did a painful-looking split while losing the final point.
