Hassiba Boulmerka (Arabic: حسيبة بولمرقة, born 10 July 1968) is a former Algerian middle distance athlete.

Born in Constantine in northeastern Algeria, Boulmerka started running seriously at the age of ten,[1] specializing in the 800 and 1,500 metres.

[citation needed] 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 1,500 m. Boulmerka's performances slowly became better, and her big breakthrough came in 1991.

In the final, she fought off Lyudmila Rogachova and Qu Yunxia (world record holder until 2015) for the gold medal.

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.