Bad News, Olympics Fans: No Saudi Women Made the Cut

After Saudi Arabia felt some international pressure to send at least some female athletes to London this summer, the pan-Arab daily paper Al-Sharq al-Awsa has reported that not a single Saudi woman has qualified for the Olympics.

The AP cited a Sunday report in Al-Sharq al-Awsa (apparently a nifty tool for Saudi rulers) that announced there would be no “female team taking part in the three fields” that Saudi men have qualified for — track, equestrian events, and weightlifting. Saudi Arabia could still face sanctions from the International Olympics Committee after the London Games if women are excluded from the country’s Olympic team. Two weeks ago, the Saudi Embassy in London said that women who qualified for the Olympics would get to compete, and just a week ago, IOC President Jacques Rogge expressed some premature optimism that Saudi Arabia would send women to the Olympics for the first time ever. Guess we have to wait another four interminable years for the Saudi women to get their shot on the international stage (Rio’s probably way more fun than London anyway — no offense, English people).