Team USA Trounces New Zealand In Olympics Opener
Ibtihaj Muhammad is d**n good at fencing. A two-time Pan American Games gold winner, five-time Senior World team medalist, and 2014 Senior World Team Champion, the 30-year-old is currently ranked as the no. 2 U.S. fencer, and no. 12 in the whole world. She will compete on Team USA at the Olympic Games in Rio this month as a saber fencer in both the individual and team competitions. Aside from her swordsmanship, Ibtihaj is also a big deal because she"s the first hijabi (a woman who wears the hijab, a traditional Islamic modesty veil) to compete for Team USA. Below, 16 things to know about this boundary-breaking athlete:
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1. She began fencing when she was 13. She didn"t like it at first, but persevered. A New Jersey native, she commutes and trains in New York City at the Peter Westbrook Foundation.
2. She was perhaps the world"s cutest kid, just by the way:
3. As a devout Muslim, one of the reasons Ibtihaj chose fencing was because of the modest outfits. Most sports require physically revealing gear, but not fencing and she says she finds the all-over uniform liberating.
4. And she will be the first U.S. athlete to compete in the Olympic Game in a hijab. "I"m just your basic hijabi Zorro," she told ESPN. (Which is amazing.)
5. She missed out on a spot in the 2012 U.S. Olympic fencing team by one spot, after suffering a hand injury. "I watched how it broke people around me when they didn"t qualify. It literally shattered their world," she told USA Today. "I could have easily walked away from the sport. I felt unfulfilled, in a sense that I wanted to leave my mark ... I wanted to provide that piece of diversity to the Olympic team, and that was really my driving force that got me here."
6. In fact, she"s the first Muslim woman to join the U.S. fencing team. In an interview with People magazine, she explained, "I want people to see Muslims in a positive light. I want people to see Muslim women in a way that they"re not used to seeing us. If I can change the thought process of just one little girl, for me, I feel accomplished. On a larger scale if I can reach a lot of people, that"s a beautiful thing."
7. But she has experienced Islamophobic prejudice. To highlight just one incident, Ibithaj shared a Snapchat photo in April of a man she said stopped her in Times Square to ask if she "was going to blow something up." Speaking to ESPN about the bigotry often shared on social media, Ibtihaj noted that, "sure, there are internet trolls everywhere. But that"s what the delete button is for." She prefers to focus on the positive, supportive comments she receives from fans.
Source: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a62264/ibtihaj-muhammad-fencing-team-usa-olympics/
