Hassiba Boulmerka

Hassiba Boulmerka (, born 10 July 1968) is a former Algerian middle distance athlete. While under threat of death from fanatics, she won Algeria's first Olympic gold medal.

Career Born in Constantine in northeastern Algeria, Boulmerka started running seriously at the age of ten, and was forced to move to Europe to train. In spite of this, she was one of the favourites for the 1500 m gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In the final, she fought off Lyudmila Rogachova and Qu Yunxia (world record holder until 2015) for the gold medal. It was Algeria's first gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Boulmerka's next two seasons were not as successful, although she won a bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. In 1995, she hadn't won a single race going into the World Championships in Gothenburg, but this did not prevent her from winning her second world title. It was her only victory of that season, and her last major victory. She competed at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, but sprained her ankle in the semi-finals. After the 1997 season, in which she did not defend her world title, she retired from sport.

Boulmerka was later elected to the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee.

She formerly held the 1,500 metres African record with her time of 3:55.30 run on 8 August 1992 in Barcelona. She also held the one mile African record of 4:20.79, set in 1991 in Oslo, for 17 years until it was beaten by Gelete Burika of Ethiopia, who timed 4:18.23 in 2008.

Post-athletics career Boulmerka has returned to Algeria and is now a businesswoman.