Olympics: The Olympiad of the woman

With Islamic female athletes making history and women comprising 41 percent of the 11,047 athletes vying for gold in Athens, the 2004 Summer Games will be remembered by many as the Olympiad of the woman.

As women from Muslim and Arab nations competed against their peers from around the world, their participation was reminiscent of the victory Western women scored over the chauvinistic ideology of the initial members of the International Olympic Committee in 1912.

Women's swimming events were authorized for the Games that year, but 16 years would pass before the IOC sanctioned women's participation in track and field.

Another 32 years would pass before women were allowed to run races longer than 200 meters.

As such events were once enormous hurdles for women who desired to compete at the highest level, it befitting that track-and-field competition became a liberation symbol for the Muslim female athletes representing their countries for the first time.

Afghanistan's Robina Muqimyar, Somalia's Fartun Abukar Omar, Iraq's Alaa Jassim, Bahrain's Rakia al-Gassra, Kuwait's Danah al-Nasrallah, and Palestine's Sanna Abubkheet instantly became role models for young girls who previously had no athletic heroines.

None of these women had a realistic chance to win medals, nor did they have the promise of their countries offering them thousands of dollars for bringing home Olympic hardware.

However, winning was not their primary objective in Athens.

Just the thrill of competition at the world's largest sporting spectacle was a Herculean victory for these women as they emerged from war torn and poverty stricken conditions.

Under the oppressive regime of the Taliban, Muqimyar could rarely venture outside as a young child, much less think about becoming a sprinter.

She took up running nearly a year ago, training on the cracked concrete in Kabul Stadium, an arena once used for executions.

Jassim had to dodge gunfights in Baghdad to train while al-Gassra persevered through the cultural fundamentalism opposing women's sport participation expressed by many in her village in Bahrain.

Al-Nasrallah is the most modern of the group. She ran in shorts and a T-shirt and felt she represented Kuwait with the utmost dignity.

These young women are now the Jennie Finches and Allyson Felixes for Muslim and Arab girls, but unlike their American counterparts who did medal in the Games, there will be no lucrative endorsements awaiting them back home.

AT&T Wireless won't be calling and Visa won't be making platinum offers.

After leading the USA women's softball team to its third consecutive gold, Finch's annual endorsement income of $400,000 is certain to triple, sport marketers predict.

Felix, the first USA track athlete to turn pro out of high school, already has a six-figure deal with Adidas and will pocket an additional $15,000 from the USA Olympic Committee for her silver medal in the 200 meters.

The closest any female Muslim athletes got to a major endorsement was the Nike top al-Gassra wore to cover her arms.

Endorsements will most likely come to the generation following these pioneers.

The main objective now is for the doors of competition to remain open, as most of the countries these women represent are still threatened by dissident groups who oppose reconstruction of their governments and changing cultural trends.

Though their athletic futures are still somewhat shaky, these phenomenal trailblazers truly exemplify the creed written by modern IOC founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin: "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

These Muslim women have just begun the struggle.

Jessica A. Johnson teaches at Columbus State Community College and is a special correspondent for the Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, OH).