Nia Ali

thumb Nia Ali (born October 23, 1988) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 100 m hurdles, heptathlon, and other events. Quotes I began hurdles my junior year at high school. I started off as the distance runner but I sort of grew out of that and I was looking for something that would show something more of my ability. I played basketball and other sports so I wondered about high jump. But the idea of running full speed and jumping over something was exhilarating and having tried it I just wanted to get better. I started running when I was a kid, when I was 6 years old. There was this boy in the same day care as me. I would race him all the time and his mother came to pick him up and would see me beating him all the time. She told my mom that she needed to sign me up for track because her son was on a team and I was beating him! So, I asked my mom every day and she was “OK, she really wants to do this”. I felt terrible. After my round I stayed out on the track to watch her run. I’m really close friends with her and as soon as I saw it, I was “Whao”. I know her journey. It’s tough to see it happen to anybody but to a close friend, it was gut wrenching. It was heart-breaking but she is a warrior and she will bounce back. You can’t count her out for the future. She will come back with a vengeance. For me, this was just the worst thing that could have happened. I don’t know. It’s a tough thing for me to say. If you look at my outdoor races, I tend to come from behind. And my indoor times are not that fast. Looking at my indoor PR, I think I can go a lot faster. I think I just do what it takes. I’m a real fighter and whatever it takes to win, I do it out there on the track. I had done pretty well for myself indoors so I guess you could say I’m an indoor specialist. "Thirteen Questions with Nia Ali (2020): the RunBlogRun Interview", March 31, 2022 External links Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from the United States Category:Track and field athletes Category:Women from the United States Category:Women born in the 1970s