Riding Towards Olympic History, Noor Slaoui Is The 1st Arab Woman To Compete In Eventing

Noor Slaoui, a twenty-nine-year-old equestrian and also an Arab woman is gearing up to compete in Eventing at the Olympics 2024 at the Palace of Versailles. She has accomplished a groundbreaking achievement by becoming the first Moroccan female rider ever to take part in the Eventing discipline. Eventing is a game in which a single horse and a rider compete against each other in dressage, cross-country, and then show jumping.

Slaoui is also the first and the only Arab athlete to have qualified to ride in the discipline and the first Moroccan rider to compete internationally in the sport.

By taking pride in the accomplishment, she told BBC, "I'm just super happy and super honoured to be representing Morocco, Africa and the Arab countries in the Olympics, it is just a magnificent dream that comes true for me."

Noor Slaoui's Unstoppable Journey towards Victory

Slaoui developed her passion for horses as a very young girl. She started riding very early as early as 4 years old, but then eventually started participating in competitions by the age of 19 and says her family were big on hiking, and would often take her for trekking on mules in the High Atlas mountains.

Commenting on her journey in the competitions, Slaoui says it was very hard at the beginning as she had very little exposure to the sport and knew nothing about it.

Slaoui "started riding and training with other competition riders that are the top level to see how they do how they work."

Slaoui also shares a very special bond with her horse, Cash man, who will also be accompanying her to Paris. The pair started riding together when Slaoui was still learning the competition ropes and they still maintain the same bond even today. However, she has quite a few plans for Cash, but she affirms that it is not going to change things too much between them as things have worked for them so far in life, positively.

Slaoui's determination towards the sport is depicted in every word that she says. Here's what she told the BBC, "I did it out of passion so I never really thought about it any other way but it is a real honour."

Adding to this, she shed light on the strong horsey tradition in those countries and Morocco and the Arab world. Therefore, Slaoui is extremely proud to be walking in those footsteps and representing those countries at such a prestigious level.

With the Olympics as one of her first senior championships, Slaoui sees the competition as a stepping stone to a persistent future in the sport.

"I'm hoping to get a lot of exposure and to just learn a lot from this experience to build on it in the future," she added. The outstanding courage and strength that has been embedded in Slaoui since she was a child towards learning from each and everything marks the landmark of her journey towards victory.