Bahraini is Sydney’s baby

"I was very surprised when my father told me the news," Abdelmajid said. Her surprise came not only because she is a girl in a country in which the right to compete in sports is normally limited to boys. Before Sydney, her competitive sporting experience was after all limited to events organised by her school and the Olympic pool this year has already seen a flurry of world records by some of the greatest swimmers ever known. So Abdelmajid probably won’t advance beyond that first heat and she is unlikely to set any new world records with her sprint across the pool. She also won’t claim the record of the youngest athlete ever to take part in the Games.

That record has been held since 1896 by gymnast Dimitrious Loundrous who was just 10 years old when he and his teammates placed third and last in the team parallel bars in the 1896 Olympics, enough to win them a bronze medal. The youngest girl ever to compete was Italian gymnast Luigina Giavotta who won a team silver in the 1928 games. Abdelmajid and al-Hili aren’t dreaming of medals in Sydney. But they are "living in a dream in Sydney," al-Hili said if nothing else, the runner said, she will be able to admire her idol, American sprinter Marion Jones, from up close if she gets a chance to run against her. Officials from Bahrain, known as a bastion of liberalism in the Gulf, say they are proud to be the first country among the Muslim Gulf states to send women to the Olympics. Mohammad Ali, the Bahraini team’s coach, says he hopes the two women’s participation "will serve as an example to the other countries in the Gulf. "They have potential, but you have to offer them the opportunity."