In solidarity with those impacted by the travel ban, and in acknowledgement of the hatred that infects American society and now inhabits our White House, we are celebrating #GreatMuslimsInSports. In collaboration with my friends @victoryjournal, I will be honoring #Muslim athletes past and present this week male and female. I am taking suggestions, so please raise your voice for deserving candidates in the comments below or by tagging your own work with #GreatMuslimsInSports.⠀ ––––⠀ When #NawalElMoutawakel won gold in the 1964 #Olympics' 400 meter hurdle, her country's monarch, King Hassan II, passed an extraordinary ruling that captured that moment in history in the most singular way: all Moroccan girls born on that day would be named after her. Nawal's gold medal victory was a voluminous first: she was the first Moroccan, the first female Muslim born on the continent of Africa and the first woman from a Muslim majority country to take the prize. Being an athlete in and of itself was a nearly unattainable dream for a young woman from Morocco. Even as she approached the finish line, Nawal was so ahead of the pack that she couldn't see any of her competitors in her peripheral vision. Years later, in an interview she recalled the final moments of the race: “I thought, 'where are the other ones? How come I'm the only one running? Maybe it's another false start' But in fact, I was so much in the front. . . And I started looking. . . Before the finish line, I turned my head left and right to make sure I wasn't the only one running from start to finish. . . but they were there, all the other competitors. . . And then I kind of slowed down, because they were my friends, and I didn't feel well to just leave them way behind. . .” In those final moments of the race, Nawal was a complete embodiment of the magic of the Olympic dream and the humility and virtue that embodies the spirit of the games. Her achievements opened doors for the multitude of Muslim and Arab women who have competed and won medals in the Olympics after her, showing them that not only could they attend the Olympics, but they could attend in order to win. (📷: #TonyDuffy. LA Olympics, 1984)