Nawal El Moutawakel (born on April 15, 1962) is a Moroccan former hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and was the first Moroccan to become an Olympic medalist (gold). In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco.

El Moutawakel was born in Casablanca, and was studying at Iowa State University when she won her Olympic title, which came as a surprise in her home country. King Hassan II of Morocco telephoned her to give his congratulations, and he declared that all girls born the day of her victory were to be named in her honor. Her medal also meant the breakthrough for sporting women in Morocco and other mostly Muslim countries.

She was a pioneer for Muslim and Arabic athletes in that she confounded long-held beliefs that women of such backgrounds could not succeed in athletics.

In 1993 she started running for fun, a 5 km run for women in Casablanca that has since become the biggest women's race held in a Muslim majority country, with up to 30,000 who came to run.

In 1995, El Moutawakel became a council member of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now known as World Athletics, and in 1998 she became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

El Moutawakel is a member of the International Olympic Committee, and she was the president of the evaluation commissions for the selection of the host city for the Summer Olympics of 2012 and 2016. Since 2012 she is a Vice-President of the IOC.

In 2006, El Moutawakel was one of the eight honored to bear the Olympic flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Turin, Italy. On 26 July 2012, she carried the London Olympics torch through Westminster.

El Moutawakel was one of the ambassadors of the Morocco bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.