First-ever Australian boxer in hijab, Tina Rahimi wins bronze. (Credit: AU Sports/Wikicommons)

An estimated 34 Muslim athletes, of whom 11 are women, have won 36 medals at the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England, this month, according to an exclusive analysis by The Muslim News. Thirteen out of 19 sports at the Games featured Muslim competitors.

Athletics

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem bagged a gold medal in the javelin competition, setting a new record and becoming the first South Asian to breach the 90-metre mark.

Nadeem finished with a 90.18-meter throw to surpass world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada despite an elbow injury. Pakistan won a gold medal in athletics for the last time in the 1952 Commonwealth Games.

Boxing

India’s reigning world champion, Nikhat Zareen, 26, clinched the gold medal in the women’s 50kg light flyweight division, winning the final bout comprehensively.

Zareen defeated Gold Coast 2018 silver medallist Carly McNaul in her final bout. Zareen created history by winning the women’s world boxing championships in Turkey in May, becoming only the fifth Indian woman to achieve this coveted feat.

Australia’s Tina Rahimi won bronze in the women’s featherweight division.

The 26-year-old is Australia’s first-ever female Muslim boxer at a Commonwealth Games. Rahimi, who fights in a hijab and full-length body coverings, unleashed a brilliant Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham to earn herself a bronze medal, after dominating England’s Sameenah Toussaint on the way to a unanimous decision in the quarter-finals.

Swimming

Ruslan Gaziev of Canada is the most successful Muslim athlete at the Games with three aquatic medals. The 22-year-old won silver in the mixed 100-metre medley and two bronzes in the mixed and men’s freestyle relay.

2022 Commonwealth Games 

Birmingham, England | Jul 28 – Aug 8

Muslim Medallists

Table compiled by Elham Asaad Buaras
(c) The Muslim News 2022