For the first time, a Saudi woman will participate in the Olympic games.

The kingdom has agreed to send a female athlete to the London 2012 Olympics to avoid being banned from the event entirely.

Arabian Business reports:

The conservative Gulf state, along with Brunei and Qatar, was warned by the International Olympic Committee’s Women and Sports Commission that it faced being expelled from the Olympics altogether unless it failed to send a female representative, Saudi media reported.

The kingdom is likely to send 18-year old equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas, who won a bronze medal in the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics.

Last year, Qatar also announced intentions to send female athletes to London, after sending 22 male athletes to the Olympic games in Beijing in 2008.