Ons Jabeur, Mayar Sherif opening doors for female Arab athletes

RIYADH: When Moroccan Nawal Al-Moutawakel climbed the podium to receive the gold medal for the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, it was the first time that an Arab had pulled off such a feat.

To this day, it remains an unforgettable moment for Arab sports fans of that era.

A national hero, Al-Moutawakel later became the first woman to hold the International Olympic Committee membership at the London 2012 Games. Before that she was one of eight women to carry the Olympic flag at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Over the years Al-Moutawakel became a role model and inspiration for Moroccan, Arab, and African female athletes.

In the two decades or so after that, however, few Arab women have followed in her Olympic footsteps.

Until the current generation that is, when female athletes from various sports have emerged to excel in raising their countries’ flags across major international sporting competitions.

And in Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur, the perfect ambassador and role model for a whole new generation of female Arab athletes may just have been found.

Jabeur has “inspired the new generation of Arab tennis players, realizing her pioneering role for future generations,” the International Tennis Federation recently said on its Facebook account, accompanied by a video explaining the player’s history, her upbringing, and her most prominent achievements.

Jabeur came to prominence in 2011 after she won the Roland Garros youth tournament, but it was the last year that has seen a meteoric rise in her career. She became the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon on the way to breaking into the top 10, having been the first to reach the quarterfinals of the