Sarah Attar

Sarah Attar (; born August 27, 1992) is a Saudi-American track and field athlete who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics as one of the first two female Olympians representing Saudi Arabia. She also competed in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Attar has lived in the United States her entire life, but has dual US-Saudi citizenship through her father, who was born in Saudi Arabia. She was invited to participate in the Olympics despite her not having met the standard Olympic qualifying times, which were waived by the International Olympic Committee.

Early life and education Attar was born and raised in Escondido, California, United States. She has dual US-Saudi citizenship.

She then attended Pepperdine University, a Christian university in Los Angeles County, California, near Malibu, where she earned a B.A. in studio arts, having won the Rex Hamilton Memorial Art Scholarship. Attar was one of eight athletes from Pepperdine to be selected to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics, along with Roxanne Barker, who was on the South African team and others.

After graduating from Pepperdine in 2014, she became a landscape photographer. In 2015, she moved to Mammoth Lakes, California, to train full-time with distance runners including Olympian Deena Kastor, the wife of her coach Andrew Kastor.

Prior to June 2012, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee had banned the Kingdom's women from competing at the Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had threatened to ban Saudi Arabia from the Olympic Games unless it allowed its women to compete. The IOC decided that Saudi Arabia's female competitors did not have to meet Olympic qualifying standards. She and her mother put together a head-and-neck covering for her to compete in, along with long sleeves and long pants. Saudi Arabian scholar Ali Al-Ahmed, who has published studies on women's sports in Saudi Arabia, opined: "The presence of female athletes [in the 2012 Olympics] made things worse, because it allowed Saudi Arabia to escape criticism." However, conservative Saudi religious clerics strongly opposed and issued rulings against Saudi women participating in spectator sports, maintaining that it may lead to corrupt morals, loss of virginity, and lesbianism.

2012 Olympic Games During the Opening Ceremonies' Parade of Nations, Attar and Shaherkani, the only two females in the Saudi Arabian delegation, were forced to walk behind their male teammates, unlike women in delegations from other Islamic nations.

Attar competed in the women's 800 metres, without having met the Olympic qualifying time. She had competed at the distance only once, during high school, but not since she had attended college. She said: "The 800 was a good option because I wouldn’t be out there getting lapped in the 5,000 or something." She finished more than half a minute slower than her nearest competitor, who crossed the finish line 150 meters ahead of her. Hundreds of spectators stood and applauded Attar as she crossed the finish line.

Her participation in the Olympics was mentioned by only one Saudi Arabian paper, which was criticized for doing so.

She ran fully covered, wearing long sleeves and long pants as she had in 2012, but this time wearing a baseball cap instead of a headscarf. She completed the marathon in 132nd place out of 133 women who finished, in a time of 3:16:11, which was 52 minutes behind the Kenyan winner Jemima Sumgong.

Post 2016 Olympics In 2018, Sarah improved her personal best in the Marathon, at the Chicago Marathon, running 3:07:16, and the half marathon, at the Houston Half Marathon, in 1:26:47, both national records for the respective distances.

Competitions

Sponsorship Attar was previously sponsored by Oiselle, an American running apparel company that promotes and supports female athletes.