Mauritania participated in six Summer Olympic games between its debut in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The Mauritania National Olympic Committee (NOC) selected two athletes via wildcards. Usually, an NOC would be able to enter up to 3 qualified athletes in each individual event as long as each athlete met the "A" standard, or 1 athlete per event if they met the "B" standard. However, since Mauritania had no athletes that met either standard, they were allowed to select two athletes, one of each gender, as wildcards. The two athletes that were selected to compete in the Athens games were Youba Hmeida in the Men's 400 meters and Aminata Kamissoko in the Women's 100 meters. Hmeida was flag bearer for the opening ceremony.