U.A.E. woman makes history at Olympic opening ceremony

Layla Abadi
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-08-14

United Arab Emirates athlete Sheikha Maitha al-Maktoum, daughter of Emirati Vice President and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, leads the Olympic delegation of the U.A.E. during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Aug. 8. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Sheikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum wrote a new page of history when she waved the United Arab Emirates flag at the Beijing National Stadium during the opening ceremony at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games on Aug. 8. Sheikha Maitha, who is competing in the 67 kilogram Tae Kwon Do competition in Beijing, became the first Gulf woman to carry a national flag at an Olympic opening ceremony.

Maitha also carried the U.A.E. flag at the Pan-Arab Games in Algeria in 2004 and the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, where she won the silver medal in the over 60kg karate championship.

“I have carried the U.A.E. flag at many championships before, global and regional,” she said. “But doing the same in Beijing is a different feeling, something completely different,” U.A.E.’s The National newspaper reports.

Maitha, often called the “Tae Kwan Do Princess,” is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, Vice-President of the U.A.E. and ruler of Dubai.

Maitha, 28, is no stranger to international success. In 2004, she became the first U.A.E. woman to win an international gold medal when she placed first in the over 65kg category at the 10th Pan Arab Games in Algeria. In the same competition, Maitha took silver in the Open category, and bronze in both the Team Kumite and Team Kata events.

Arguably her biggest win came in 2006 when she was a silver medallist at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Maitha continued her success last year at the 11th Pan Arab Games in Cairo, again winning gold in the over 65kgs Tae Kwan Do event and bronze in the Open category.

Ibrahim Abdul Malik, the general secretary of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the U.A.E., hopes that Maitha’s leadership at the 2008 games will inspire girls throughout the region to achieve athletic success.

Sheikha Maitha al-Maktoum on the mat for a Taekwondo match. (Getty/AFP Images)

“For the first time in the history of this region, a woman will be carrying the flag of her country at the Olympics,” Abdul Malik told The National. “We are sending a message to the women of the U.A.E. and of this region that sport does not differentiate between males and females. Sport is for all people; it is for those who want to work hard and get results.”

“I am very proud of this honour, but it is really difficult to express my exact feelings in words,” Maitha said at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea. “I hope it gives me the motivation to continue my work and serve my country in all fields in the future.”

Maitha was named the Arab Athlete of the Year in 2007. In 2008, she was selected as the Best Female Arab Sportsperson for the second consecutive year at the Arab Sports Awards. The UNESCO House in Paris conferred on Maitha its World Fair Play Award for 2006 in the category “Sports Career.”

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