82 Seconds That Made Olympic (And World!) History

By MoveOn Staff. Tuesday, August 7 2012

Civil Rights

One big step forward for equal rights happened on August 3rd, when Wojdan Shaherkani, of Saudi Arabia, competed in an Olympic judo match. While the match lasted only 82 seconds, she made history; this is the first year that every single country in the world has had women competing in the Olympics. It’s also the first time that a woman athlete represented the Saudi people.

_{Saudi Arabia’s Wojdan Shaherkani (white) competes with Puerto Rico’s Melissa Mojica (blue) during their women’s +78kg judo contest match of the London 2012 Olympic Games on August 3, 2012 at the ExCel arena in London. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/GettyImages}