1992: Algeria's Hassiba Boulmerka won a gold medal in the 1,500m race. That same year Susi Susanti from Indonesia became the first Olympic athlete to win a gold medal in badminton for the world's most populous Muslim nation.

2000: Jordan's Princess Haya, the sister of King Abdullah, became the first female Arab flag-bearer at an Olympic Games, the first and only Arab woman to compete in equestrian events. In 2006, she became the first Arab woman to lead the International Equestrian Federation.

2004: Women from Iran won medals in pistol shooting. The same year Afghanistan -- which had ended Taliban rule only three years earlier -- sent two female athletes to compete. Bahrain sent Roaya Al-Ghasra as their first-ever female competitor.

2008: Nawal El Moutawakel (right) of Morocco was elected to a seat on the 15-member International Olympic Committee Executive Board, becoming the first woman from a Muslim nation on the rule-making body.

Agencies