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Rio Olympics 2016: Five Female Athletes To Watch

August 05th 2016

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New Zealand’s triathlon star Andrea Hewitt will attend her third Olympic Games this week. She returns to the sport after the sudden death of her fiancé and coach, Laurent Vidal, last November. Hewitt was silver medalist in the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series, which was her fifth World Championship title.
For the second time in Olympian history, Saudi Arabia is sending female athletes to the Games, including long-distance runner Sarah Attar. Born and raised in Southern California to an American mother and Saudi father, Attar was a 19-year-old college student in 2012 when Saudi Arabia agreed to allow women to compete in London.
Boxer Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields rapidly rose from the streets of Michigan to the glittering gold podium at London 2012. Aged 17-years-old, Shields became the first American woman in history to win Olympic boxing gold. With an intimidating 74-1 amateur record, she’s strongly tipped to win her second medal this year in Rio de Janeiro.
Chinese badminton players Luo Ying and Luo Yu’s physical similarity is one of their biggest advantages against opponents. The identical twins were runners-up in the Korea Open, semi-finalists in Singapore, Australia, Paris and Hong Kong, and also won the Badminton Asia Championship and the China Master Grand Prix Gold.
British cyclist Lizzie Armistead feared she would miss the Rio Olympics after UK doping officials tried to have the world champion cyclist banned for missing a third drugs test. But with the support of a legal team backed by British Cycling, the 27-year-old has been given permission to race on Sunday as one of the favourites for gold

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are almost upon us, with the opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium taking place later this evening. Every four years, the Games give female athletes the international exposure they otherwise rarely get. With more than 10,000 athletes and more than 200 countries competing, the prospect of keeping up with all the action can seem overwhelming. Check out MOJEH’s photo gallery to find out which athletes you should have your eye on over the the next 17 days.

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