Three weeks in the past, on the Bell Canadian Olympic Monitor and Area Trials in Montreal, Mariam Abdul-Rashid of Oshawa, Ont., noticed her childhood desires come true—qualifying to compete for Canada at an Olympic Video games within the ladies’s 100m hurdles. For Abdul-Rashid, it has been a journey spanning greater than 20 years, however she believes something is feasible, and that the sky’s the restrict.
Abdul-Rashid’s Olympic desires started in 2004, when her dad and mom took her to a monitor program with Durham Area Athletics, as a result of they stated she had an excessive amount of vitality working round on the farm. “I used to be manner too younger,” she laughs. “I bear in mind my dad convincing the coach on the time to let me attend one follow—the remaining was historical past.”
Abdul-Rashid was with the Durham program for 5 years earlier than becoming a member of the Pace Academy, led by former Canadian Olympian Tony Sharpe. Sharpe has an eye fixed for potential world-class sprinters, having previously coached Paris 2024 Olympians Andre De Grasse, Christopher Morales Williams and Duan Asemota. “I got here to Tony to get to that subsequent stage,” Abdul-Rashid says. “He is aware of and loves monitor, plus he’s tremendous supportive.”
The 26-year-old had an distinctive highschool profession as a 100m/200m sprinter, transferring to the 400m hurdles in her senior years, which led her to a scholarship from the College of Texas, additionally coached by a former Canadian Olympian Edrick Floréal. “My 400m hurdles started to plateau, and I began to get higher on the 100m hurdles,” Abdul-Rashid remembers. “I bear in mind folks telling me on the time it wasn’t the suitable transfer.”
Abdul-Rashid discovered her spark in the course of the 2024 indoor season, when she set 4 private bests in 4 weeks to turn out to be solely the sixth Canadian girl to run sub-eight seconds within the ladies’s 60m hurdles. Her instances led her to the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, the place she reached the ladies’s 60m hurdles semi-finals. The string of strong performances continued into the out of doors season, smashing her 100m hurdles private greatest with 12.69 seconds in late April, nicely underneath the Olympic 100m hurdles commonplace of 12.77 seconds.
World Indoor Championships 🤘
Mariam Abdul-Rashid finishes ninth within the 60-meter hurdle semi finals matching her PB time of seven.99🤘#WhatStartsHere x #HookEm pic.twitter.com/tIkCAuCNXf
— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) March 3, 2024
Having met the Olympic commonplace, Abdul-Rashid’s job on the Canadian Trials was clear—win the ladies’s 100m hurdles occasion and safe her spot. Her response when she noticed her 20-year dream come to fruition was pure elation, and he or she set free a scream. She is going to now comply with within the footsteps of her Canadian Olympic heroes Perdita Felicien and Phylicia George.
“I believe I’ll have the ‘oh my god, that is occurring’ second after I get there,” Abdul-Rashid says. “I really feel like I’m proper the place I should be, and I’m able to take it in.”
Abdul-Rashid’s final objective in Paris is to succeed in the ultimate or run a private greatest in entrance of her household, who shall be there to help and cheer her on. “And something may occur, so perhaps a nationwide file too,” she provides. Her Olympic journey will start within the ladies’s 100m hurdles heats on Wednesday, Aug. 7.
