NAWAL AL MOUTAWAKIL
Name: Ilyass
Surname: El Barhami Qarchli
Group: 1 BAC ¨B¨
Course: 2014-2015
-Nawal was born (on April 15, 1962) and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. Her talent
brought her to the United States, specifically to the track team at Iowa State
University. While a student, she was asked by the Moroccan track team to
compete with them in the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She
competed in the inaugural 400-meter hurdles event and placed first, beating her
personal best by .76 seconds and winning the gold medal. The King of
Morocco at the time, Hassan II, declared that every girl born on her victory
day would be named Nawal in her honor.
Since her historic
win, Nawal has championed female athletes all over the world. She was also the first Moroccan and the first woman
from a Muslim majority country to win an Olympic gold medal. She is a member of
the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), and she was selected to
be a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1998. She was
president of the selection committee for the 2012 summer games and is the first
Muslim woman to be on the committee.
Since 2007, she has
been the Moroccan Minister of Youth and Sports. She is also the president
of Association Marocaine de Sports et Developpment (AMSD), as well as the
vice-president of the Moroccan Royal Federation of Athletics.
Her
Olympic achievement was the breakthrough that gave Moroccan women much-needed
belief in themselves and the courage to take up sport, which had previously
been regarded as the preserve of men.
The generation, which grew up at the time of
her Los Angeles success has since emerged impressively on the international
scene. Nezha Bidouane was World Champion in 1997 in the 400 metres hurdles,
while Zohra Ouaziz took the silver medal in the 1999 World Championships in the
5,000 metres.
Her
influence internationally has also increased significantly in recent years. In
1995, she became a council member of the International Association of Athletics
Federations and two years later she became the first Muslim woman ever to be
elected to the International Olympic Committee. A member of the IOC Women and
Sports Commission and the IOC Marketing Commission, in 2004 she was appointed
Chairperson of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
She is currently Vice-Chair of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
