It looks as though what could have been a first for women in sports will be an almost.

The Associated Press reports it doesn’t appear that Saudi Arabia will be allowing women to compete in the London Summer Olympics for the first time, after speculation this could be the year.

“I do not approve of Saudi female participation in the Olympics at the moment,” Prince Nawaf, president of the Saudi Olympic Committee, told the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, according to the news service. 

Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar are the only three countries never to have sent women to the Olympics, AP adds.

“If the International Olympic Committee was looking for an official affirmation of Saudi discrimination against women in sports, the minister in charge just gave it,” Christoph Wilcke of the Human Rights Watch tells the news service. “It is impossible to square Saudi discrimination against women with the noble values of the Olympic Charter.”

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