Khadija second ever UAE woman athlete to go to Olympics – London 2012 Olympic Games
The United Arab Emirates has chosen Khadija Mohammad to be part of the country’s Olympic team where she will be representing UAE in the weightlifting event of the London 2012 Olympic Games which are scheduled to start from July 27.
The selection of Khadija in the UAE Olympics team marks the second time in the country’s history that a woman athlete will be representing it. Khadija is the only female athlete up till this point who is part of the UAE Olympics team.
The financial director of the UAE National Olympics Committee, Abdul Rahman Falaknaz, expressed his satisfaction at representation of UAE women in the London 2012 Olympic Games in the following words, “We, at the UAE NOC are concentrating on having women
in all fields — be it in the offices or in the sports field. We have been stressing more and more that every federation in the UAE have at least one woman on board. Khadija’s qualification as the only woman weightlifter from the Gulf is a fantastic achievement.
We are glad to belong to this period when the UAE is taking the lead in this sphere of making women a part of everything.”
Khadija got the chance of making it to the London Olympics after UAE women weightlifters were able to get to the fifth place in the Asian Championships that took place in South Korea this year in May. Khadija will be taking part in the 75 kg category in
the London 2012 Olympic Games.
UAE started taking part in the Olympic Games in 1984 but it was not until 2008 that the first woman athlete from UAE made an appearance in the Games. Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum became the first woman to represent her country in the Olympic
Games that were staged in Beijing. The event she participated in was under-67 kg taekwondo.
Other than Khadija, UAE will also be sending its football team, three shooters and one swimmer. The swimmer selected for the London 2012 Olympic Games is Mubarak Al Gaffari while the three shooters are Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, Shaikh Juma Bin
Dalmook Al Maktoum and Daher Al Aryani.
Tags: