Hassiba BOULMERKA An Algerian model

Hassiba BOULMERKA
An Algerian model

Hassiba Boulmerka (born July 10, 1968) is a
former Algerian middle distance athlete. In 1992, she
became the first Algerian to win an Olympic title.

Born
in Constantine,
Boulmerka started running as a young girl, specialising in the 800 and
1,500 m.. She was successful in national and regional races, although
there wasn't much competition. Her first major international tournament where
the 1988
Summer Olympics in Seoul, where she was
eliminated in the preliminary heat of both the 800 and 1,500m.

Boulmerka's
performances slowly became better, and her big breakthrough came in 1991. The
first major race she won was the 800 m.
at the Golden Gala race in Rome, Italy. A
month later, she competed at the World Championships. On
the last straight of the 1,500 m. final, she sprinted to victory, becoming
the first African woman to win an athletics world
title.

Her
remarkable performance did not only give her positive attention. She was
frequently bothered by fundamentalist Muslim groups
in Algeria who thought she
showed too much of her body when racing, and Boulmerka was forced to move to Europe to train. In spite of this, she was one of the
favourites for the 1,500 m. gold medal at the
1992
Barcelona Olympics. In the final, she fought off Lyudmila
Rogachova for the gold medal. It was Algeria's first gold medal at the
Olympic Games.

Boulmerka's
next two seasons were not as successful, although she won a bronze medal at the
1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. In 1995, she
hadn't won a single race going into the World Championships in Gothenburg, but
this did not prevent her from winning her second world title. It was her only
victory of that season, and her last major victory. She competed at the Centennial
Olympics in Atlanta, but sprained her ankle in the
semi-finals. After the 1997 season, in which she did not bother to defend her
world title, she retired from sports.

Boulmerka
was later elected to the athlete's commission of the International Olympic Committee.

Hassiba
BOULMERKA

In 1991, Algerian Hassiba Boulmerka gained fabulous -
but ô how much disturbing - victory in the 1 500 m with the
Championships of the world of athletics. When it returned to Algiers,
it was accomodated out of national heroin, but that which represented a model
for the Arab women eager to leave their yoke was condemned by the
fundamentalist Islamic ones and had to settle in Europe

to involve itself. At the time of the finale of the 1 500 m to the Olympic
Games of 1992 in
Barcelona, the Russian Lyudmila Rogacheva imposed an infernal rate on the other
competitors, outdistancing them all... except for Hassiba Boulmerka. With two
hundred meters of the arrival, the Algerian one exceeded the Russian, flying
away towards the victory. For the first time, four manhunters crossed the
finishing line in less than four minutes. Hassiba Boulmerka counted then among
the first people with being elected at the commission of the athletes of the
Olympic International Committee.

Hassiba BOULMERKA An Algerian model Hassiba