Wojdan Shaherkani lost her judo bout Friday in 82 seconds, but that was long enough for the shy teenager to make history.
The first female athlete from Saudi Arabia to compete at an Olympics, Shaherkani faced a more experienced fighter from Puerto Rico in the women's heavyweight class. She managed a few uncertain lunges at her opponent but soon found herself on the mat, flat on her back, eliminated from the competition in the judo equivalent of a knockout.
Afterward, she filed quietly out of London's Excel Center in a too-big judo uniform and the black hijab, or headscarf, that she had lobbied Olympic officials to let her wear in accordance with the modesty that conservative followers believe Islam asks of women.
But Shaherkani, 16, already had won her challenge against the strictest taboos of Saudi Arabia, one of the Muslim world's most conservative societies, where the government bans physical education for girls on the grounds that athletics and femininity are incompatible.
Hard-line clerics have argued, variously, that sports damage the female psyche, corrupt a girl's morals and can lead to lesbianism.
So merely by taking the floor, earning a rousing ovation, Shaherkani raised hopes for a breakthrough for women's rights in her country. Along with another Saudi woman, 800-metre runner Sarah Attar, she's part of a watershed Olympics where, for the first time, every participating nation has sent a female athlete.
"I am proud to be the first Saudi woman and I'm very thankful for all the audience and all the crowd who supported me and stood behind me," Shaherkani told reporters after the bout.
Shaherkani's father, a judoka and referee named Ali Siraj, took it upon himself to train his daughter privately. Unlike the rest of the judo field in London, she isn't a black belt in the Japanese martial art. Her membership on the Saudi team was only announced a few weeks before the games.
The Olympics aren't a big deal in Saudi Arabia - the quadrennial soccer World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the calendar - but the decision to send Shaherkani and Attar to London drew a torrent of criticism.
First came condemnations for the Saudi sports minister, Prince Nawaf al Faisal, who was accused of kowtowing to the West. Then came the attacks on the athletes themselves. An Arabic hashtag popped up on Twitter called "Olympic whores."
On July 27, Shaherkani marched in the opening ceremony wearing glasses and waving a Saudi flag.
Her participation was briefly in doubt after the International Judo Federation, the sport's governing body, ruled that she couldn't compete wearing the hijab because it would be dangerous in competition. But her supporters appealed and the federation relented, allowing her to compete in a modified version.
"Wojdan remains a winner to me and millions of men AND women around the world," tweeted Alaa Al-Mizyen, a Saudi youth activist, after the bout.
