“I’ve got to go out and do this for you and show I can bring a gold medal home too, I can’t wait to go home,” Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse was excited about going back to his partner after securing gold in 200m in the Tokyo Olympics. With six Olympic medals, De Grasse, born into a family of immigrants, is Canada’s most decorated male summer Olympic athlete. While he has credited a lot of his sprinting success to his mother, Brooklyn, the influence of his partner might also have a significant role to play. Do you know why?

Having a partner who also shares the same passion is indeed a blessing. Andre De Grasse can count himself among those lucky fellows because his partner is also an accomplished track and field athlete specializing in 100m hurdles, heptathlon, and other events. That’s Nia Ali, 2016 Olympic silver medalist in 100m hurdles.

Meet Nia Ali, partner of Andre De Grasse, the Canadian sprint star

Nia Ali was born in Philadelphia on October 23, 1988. She had then moved to New Jersey and completed her high school there. She enrolled at the University of Southern California for her collegiate career. She became the NCAA champion in 2011 and also an All-American in heptathlon there. From there her career went on becoming better only.

She won the 2013 USA Indoor track and field championships in the 60-meter hurdles. In the following year, at the World Indoor Championships 2014, she grabbed the good medal with a time of 7.80. However, all these achievements are probably overshadowed by Nia’s grit to repeatedly come back as an athlete-mother. It all started in 2015.

Nia gave birth to her first child Titus (with former partner Michael Tinsley, a 400m hurdler) in 2015. Ten months after bracing motherhood, Nia came back stronger to win 60m hurdles gold at the 2016 World Indoor Championships. If that was not enough, six months after that she grabbed her Rio Olympics gold. This meant that she had to continuously balance her two roles.

“I don’t take him to the track too often when I train, because I haven’t mastered that whole ‘focusing when he’s around’ thing. I get into a parent mode too quickly. Unless my mom or his father (Michael Tinsley) are there, I can’t focus,” Nia had told back then. But, Nia celebrated her motherhood with a comeback not once, but twice.

In 2018, Nia braced motherhood for the second time as her daughter with partner Andre De Grasse was born. In one more stunning achievement, Nia then bagged a gold at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Interestingly, with that Nia became the first one between her and De Grasse to bring an international gold. And De Grasse could not have been happier.

“I was so happy for her when she won the World Championships in Doha, the first to bring home a gold medal, it really motivated me and inspired me, to see how hard she works, she’s a big inspiration to me,” De Grasse had told in 2021, referring to that. However, despite going through one of the best phases of her career, she took a bold decision.

Nia and De Grasse decided to have their child Kenzo, in 2020 after the Tokyo Olympics was postponed. That meant, Nia missed the chance of competing in her second Olympics. But with her journey, Nia has already proven that motherhood is not the end of a career. “I want people to understand you can balance track and motherhood. Having a baby doesn’t have to hold you back from achieving your goals,” she had said.

Nia Ali misses the Paris Olympics after stumbling at the qualifiers

In a very unfortunate turn for her hurdling career, Nia Ali was unsuccessful in securing a berth for the 2024 Paris Olympics. She finished fourth and just missed out with the lowest of margins. Ali finished in 12.37 seconds. While this figure was one of the best in her career, it was just not supposed to be her day. Masai Russell, who finished first, took 12.25 seconds, while Alaysha Johnson in second place took 12.31, the same as Grace Stark in third.

This small margin would stay in Ali’s mind for a long time, as it would steal her chance to add to her Olympic medal tally. In an Instagram post afterward, she thanked her family and coaches for supporting her and said that it was unfortunate that she wouldn’t participate in the Olympics despite being in the best shape of her life. However, as it seems from her statement after the trials, she might not be done yet.

“I feel like you’re only as old as you feel. So I don’t like to put like an age barrier on myself. I honestly don’t know who came up with these ages and I mean I guess it’s just like the longevity that each person has, maybe they just kind of average but I feel good and my children keep me young,” Nia, 35, had said. Alongside she had also noted how motherhood has actually helped her keep herself fresh.

According to her, although she has been running for a long time, she has taken breaks periodically for motherhood. Nia thinks these have helped her to rest herself, making her feel “very strong”. Will this strength once again bring out one more comeback from her?