The volunteer was relieved of duty and SXSW organizers apologized. The incident didn't come up during the visit, which instead focused on Muhammad's road to Rio.

"I will be this summer be the first Muslim woman to represent Team USA while wearing the hijab," she said.

"That is fantastic!" Ellen exclaimed. "Do you know how important that is?"

Muhammad always enjoyed sports and got into fencing in high school.

"With each sport my mom always had to alter the uniform for me by adding long sleeves or pants," she recalled. The fencing uniform, on the other hand, needed no such changes.

"It was always very important for my mom to keep me active," Muhammad said. "She saw how excited I was to be in sports. She wanted me to do that while observing the hijab."

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC