The whole point of pursuing fencing was to be able to be like anyone else. Under a mask, a hijab would be hidden. Beneath a jacket and plastron and breeches, skin couldn’t be seen.

But that decision was made long before Ibtihaj Muhammad was set to become the first American woman to wear a hijab in the Olympics. That was nearly two decades before the Muslim fencer was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

That was before President Obama — in the middle of a February speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque — singled her out in the audience, asking her to stand up:

“I told her to bring home the gold,” Obama said. “Not to put any pressure on you.”

Muhammad could have gone to Rio and quietly pursued her dream, making a point in making history, but never again would her words mean so much. The end of the Olympics wouldn’t mean the end of the New Jersey native being asked by strangers if she’s a terrorist so close to her home.

Proudly representing both America and Islam is possible.

“America is all that I know. I feel American down to my bones,” Muhammad told reporters in New York in April. “For anyone to challenge that idea that I’m not American or that I don’t belong, it’s frustrating. I want people to see a Muslim woman in hijab represent the United States this summer. … It’s unfortunate that we’re in this moment, especially during the presidential election, where people feel so comfortable voicing their dislike or the discontent for people of a particular background, a particular race or a particular religion. We as Americans have to fight that, because that goes against the very values that we stand for.

“I feel like I’m in this position and I have to use it, and I want to use it well. I don’t want to waste my time as an athlete. I want to reach as many people as I can, just not with my skills within my sport but also with my voice.”

Born and raised in Maplewood, N.J., Muhammad, 30, and her five siblings were encouraged by their parents to participate in sports, but found fitting in the most challenging aspect. She had no female Muslim athletes to look up to, was teased and harassed, and was constantly forced to alter her uniforms so that she would be fully covered, as her religion required.

It wasn’t until her mother, Denise, drove with her 13-year-old daughter past a high school and saw through a window a sport in which Muhammad could finally wear what every other child did. She started fencing soon afterward and accelerated her training three years later upon joining the Peter Westbrook Foundation in Manhattan, for the first time part of a program featuring mostly other African-Americans.

“When you love the sport, you can tell, it exudes and we saw that immediately,” said Westbrook, who won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics. “When we saw how hard she would work and her spirit, we thought we had something here. On Saturdays in our program, we have up to 160 kids from the inner cities and the coaches picked out Ibti.”

Muhammad led Columbia High School to two state championships. She became an All-American at Duke, specializing in saber fencing. In 2010, she became the first Muslim woman to qualify for the U.S. national team, but a torn hand ligament stopped her from reaching the 2012 Olympics. In addition to winning five World Championship medals, Muhammad started a clothing line with her siblings and teaches at the Westbrook Foundation.

Still, even in her own country, ignorance remained normal. At this year’s South by Southwest festival in Texas, a volunteer refused to take a picture for her ID unless Muhammad removed her hijab.

It wasn’t her intention to stand out — until it became a responsibility.

“I feel like I owe it to my community. I owe it to people who look like me,” Muhammad said at the Team USA media summit. “These struggles, this every day of this fear-mongering and hate that we are experiencing, I owe it to all of us to combat these notions of hate and bigotry. I have to speak out against it because there are people before me who did it for African-Americans and did it for other minorities in this country and I feel like I owe it to do it for us at this moment.”

Her mark has already been made.

“Now that Ibti has been on center stage, she has drawn more Muslim women to come here,” Westbrook said. “They come, they wear the hijab and they say they’re here because Ibti trains here. I have Muslim people call me who don’t know her but just want to say how she is a beacon of light for Islamic women, that they can play sports. Mostly they talk about how they’ve been held back in education throughout the world and that she is a light, not just for Muslim women, but for women all around the world to excel. She is a great role model.”