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Saudi Arabia Will Include Women in Olympic Team after All |
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Olympics - 25 Jun 2012 - Saudi Arabia will, after all, include women athletes in its team for this summer’s Olympic Games in London, despite a statement in April suggesting that the Arab state would not “endorse” participation by Saudi women at the games.
The Saudi Embassy in London said yesterday that the Saudi Olympic Committee would “oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify.”
The FEI, the international equestrian federation, said today that Dalma Malhas, the rider considered the most likely of the country’s female athletes to take part in the London Olympics, had not, in fact, attained the minimum eligibility standard, and therefore would not take part
However, Ingmar De Vos, the FEI's secretary general, said: "We understand that the IOC has a number of other female athletes from Saudi Arabia in other sports who are currently under consideration."
The decision to allow female Saudi athletes to compete came out of lengthy negotiations with the International Olympic Committee, following international criticism of the country’s previous refusal to include women in its Olympic teams.
With Brunei and Qatar having said that they will include women in their teams for the first time, all countries competing at the games will have women competitors.
Meanwhile, General Mowaffak Joumaa, president of the Syrian Olympic Committee, will not attend the games after being refused a visa to enter the UK because of his links with the widely-condemned regime of the country's President Bashar al-Assad.
David Cameron, the UK’s prime minister, had said earlier this year that officials of the regime would be barred from the UK.
However, Joumaa had insisted that he and other senior officials of the committee will attend the games.
Sportcal
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