A trip to the Olympics, a meeting with the president and maybe a gold medal all began at a stop sign in Maplewood, N.J.
Ibtihaj Muhammad played a lot of sports growing up, including softball, tennis, track and volleyball. But because her Muslim faith mandated that her arms and legs be covered, her mother, Denise, regularly adjusted uniforms, adding stretch pants for track and sweatpants for volleyball.
“My parents were on a mission to find a sport without alteration,” Muhammad said.
When she was 13, and at that stop sign, her mother noticed through big windows a group of fencers working out in the cafeteria at Columbia High School.