Ibtihaj Muhammad

Chelsea

When she was growing up in New Jersey in the 1990s, Ibtihaj Muhammad’s parents wanted all their children to be able to compete and win in sports. They also wanted to ensure that their daughters remain fully covered and wear hijab to cover their heads, in keeping with their family’s religious beliefs. Ibtihaj experimented with different sports but always had to modify the uniforms. Fencing, however, seemed like a perfect option: Since fencers wear full-body suits and masks, the uniforms wouldn’t need to be altered.

When she started fencing at thirteen, Ibtihaj didn’t fall in love with the sport right away. At her mother’s encouragement, she continued with fencing because she hoped it would be a good way to bolster her future college applications. She confronted racism and Islamophobia early on. Her teammates wondered whether a black woman could succeed in a generally white sport. Ibtihaj was told her legs were too muscular and that no one who wore hijab could ever be a champion. “When most people picture an Olympic fencer, they probably do not imagine a person like me,” she said in her USA Fencing bio. “Fortunately, I am not most people.”

Over time, Ibtihaj repeatedly overcame the bigotry directed at her and proved her detractors wrong. As a college student at Duke, she was a three-time all-American athlete and the 2005 Junior Olympic champion. During her junior year, she took time off from the sport, deciding to focus on completing her double major in African studies and international relations. “Being a student athlete is so difficult, and I would argue even more so at a school like Duke,” she said. “It was the right decision to make.” But she never gave up on her fencing dreams.

After college, she turned her attention to fencing full-time. “I saw there was a lack of minorities in the sport,” she said. “There were barriers that needed to be broken in women’s saber.” She was determined to win an Olympic medal and believed that if she worked hard enough, she could do it. In 2010, she qualified for the World Fencing Championships in France. While there, Ibtihaj was asked for her autograph for the first time. Paris has long been the center of the competitive fencing world; it’s also the capital of a country that passed legislation the same year Ibtihaj competed at the World Fencing Championships banning full-face covering in public, known as a niqab or burqa. The European Court of Human Rights upheld the ban four years later. When she was later interviewed about the competition, Ibtihaj said, “In France, a place that has struggled with the idea of hijab and with the Muslim community, I feel like it was a moment for even French citizens to see a Muslim woman on television.”

After the World Championships, Ibtihaj made history when she secured a spot on the 2016 United States National Fencing Team for that year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a first for an American Muslim woman. The more she succeeded, the more people criticized her. “People told me that my goals weren’t attainable for whatever reason—especially when I was trying to achieve a feat that has never been done before—and that was discouraging,” she said. Still, she refused to be deterred by the ignorance, bigotry, and hate she received, even when they came from people who should have been supporting her. Her teammates asked her whether she used a “magic carpet” to pray and deliberately didn’t tell her about team practices. “Then it became very clear, ‘We don’t want you here,’ ” she said. She also would later say that both the U.S. Fencing Association and Olympic Committee didn’t take the death threats against her as seriously as they should have. “If anything, as a national governing body, I would hope that USA Fencing would want to protect me, and I never felt that from them,” she said.

“I wanted to challenge the narrative that Muslim women are meek and docile and oppressed. Being unapologetically Muslim, black, a woman… Either you like it or you don’t, and I don’t really care either way.”

—IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD

Ibtihaj has always recognized her importance as a role model to other young Muslim women and women of color, particularly those drawn to fencing. Rather than feeling weighed down by that responsibility, she is spurred on by it. As she has often said, “Never allow anyone to dictate your journey.” At the Rio Games, she became the first hijab-wearing Muslim American to win an Olympic medal, taking the bronze as part of the team sabre event. I remember watching Ibtihaj and her team win while breastfeeding Aidan, my then almost two-month-old son. The triumph and joy Ibtihaj felt was palpable through the television screen, thousands of miles away. I later learned that her mantra is “I’m ready. I’m prepared. I’m strong. I’m capable. I’m a champion.” That conviction was visible on her medal-winning day in August 2016, and it still is today.

After the Olympics, Ibtihaj kept fencing, kept pushing herself into new territory, and kept shattering stereotypes, including through her frank discussions about her battles with anxiety and depression. In her 2018 memoir, Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream, Ibtihaj wrote about how, in 2014, after she qualified for the U.S. National Fencing Team, she would wake up on the mornings of competitions exhausted, even after a good night’s sleep. During competitions, she often felt lethargic, like she couldn’t move her arms and legs. She knew something more than nerves was happening, and she sought out her team’s sports psychologist, who explained that her physical fatigue was the result of performance anxiety. She conquered this hurdle the way she overcame others in her path, with hard work and focus. Every morning, she did thought exercises and spent time meditating and in prayer. I have no doubt that her candor and courage in sharing this part of her Olympic journey will help others—athletes and nonathletes alike—feel more comfortable with discussing their challenges and with seeking the help they need.

In 2017, Ibtihaj hit a new milestone when she got her own Barbie doll as part of their Shero series. She helped design the Barbie, the first ever to wear hijab, and when it went on sale in 2018, it quickly joined Charlotte and Aidan’s toy box. Our family is eagerly awaiting her first children’s book, The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family, which is due to be published in 2019. After years of not being able to find clothing that was both modest and fashion-forward, she started her own clothing line in 2014. She remains a marquee member of the U.S. National Fencing team and a vocal supporter of human rights and democracy. When asked whether she would ever consider running for office, she answered, “Honestly, I had never thought of it before. But I’m also one of those people who thinks they can do anything.” And we do, too.