Mr Sallam said staff and pupils were extremely proud of Roberts, who takes part in sports presentation evenings and has coached swimmers at the school.

BBC: Golden swimmer with a will to win

"She replied that she is proud to represent the kingdom and all the Saudi women who wanna do sports, " he wrote.

WSJ: Menu

We are fans of the sport, we want it to be taken seriously like most sports but at the moment we are off the back of a poor example and we're not proud of it.

BBC: F1 returns to scene of the crime