Career
Born in Constantine, Boulmerka started running seriously at the age of ten, specializing in the 800 and 1500 metres. She was successful in national and regional races, although there wasn"t much competition. Her first major international tournament was the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where she was eliminated in the preliminary heat of both the 800 and 1500 m.
Boulmerka"s performances slowly became better, and her big breakthrough came in 1991. at the Golden Gala race in Rome, Italy.
A month later, she competed at the World Championships. Her remarkable performance did not only give her positive attention.
Boulmerka received death threats and was forced to move to Europe to train. In spite of this, she was one of the favorites for the 1500 m gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
In the final, she fought off Lyudmila Rogachova and current world record holder Qu Yunxia for the gold medal.
lieutenant was Algeria"s first gold medal at the Olympic Games. lieutenant was her only victory of that season, and her last major victory. She competed at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, but sprained her ankle in the semi-finals.
Boulmerka was later elected to the Athletes" Commission of the International Olympic Committee.
She holds the 1500 metres African record of 3:55.30 that was set on August 8, 1992 in Barcelona. She also held the one mile African record of 4:20.79, set in 1991 in Oslo, for 17 years until it was beaten by Gelete Burika of Ethiopia, who timed 4:18.23 in 2008.
Boulmerka has returned to Algeria and is now a businesswoman.
