3 weeks in the past, on the Bell Canadian Olympic Observe and Box Trials in Montreal, Mariam Abdul-Rashid of Oshawa, Ont., noticed her youth desires come true—qualifying to compete for Canada at an Olympic Video games within the girls’s 100m hurdles. For Abdul-Rashid, it’s been a adventure spanning greater than 20 years, however she believes anything else is conceivable, and that the sky’s the restrict.
Abdul-Rashid’s Olympic desires started in 2004, when her folks took her to a observe program with Durham Area Athletics, as a result of they stated she had an excessive amount of power operating round at the farm. “I used to be means too younger,” she laughs. “I take note my dad convincing the trainer on the time to let me attend one observe—the remaining used to be historical past.”
Abdul-Rashid used to be with the Durham program for 5 years prior to becoming a member of the Velocity Academy, led via former Canadian Olympian Tony Sharpe. Sharpe has a watch for attainable 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 observe, plus he’s tremendous supportive.”
The 26-year-old had an outstanding highschool occupation as a 100m/200m sprinter, shifting to the 400m hurdles in her senior years, which led her to a scholarship from the College of Texas, additionally coached via a former Canadian Olympian Edrick Floréal. “My 400m hurdles started to plateau, and I began to get well on the 100m hurdles,” Abdul-Rashid recollects. “I take note folks telling me on the time it wasn’t the fitting transfer.”
Abdul-Rashid discovered her spark all over the 2024 indoor season, when she set 4 private bests in 4 weeks to turn into simplest the 6th Canadian lady to run sub-eight seconds within the girls’s 60m hurdles. Her instances led her to the 2024 Global Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, the place she reached the ladies’s 60m hurdles semi-finals. The string of forged performances persisted into the out of doors season, smashing her 100m hurdles private perfect with 12.69 seconds in overdue April, smartly underneath the Olympic 100m hurdles same old of 12.77 seconds.
Global Indoor Championships 🤘
Mariam Abdul-Rashid finishes 9th within the 60-meter hurdle semi finals matching her PB time of seven.99🤘#WhatStartsHere x #HookEm %.twitter.com/tIkCAuCNXf
— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) March 3, 2024
Having met the Olympic same old, Abdul-Rashid’s activity on the Canadian Trials used to be transparent—win the ladies’s 100m hurdles match and protected her spot. Her response when she noticed her 20-year dream come to fruition used to be natural elation, and he or she set free a scream. She is going to now observe within the footsteps of her Canadian Olympic heroes Perdita Felicien and Phylicia George.
“I feel I’ll have the ‘oh my god, this is going on’ second when I am getting there,” Abdul-Rashid says. “I believe like I’m proper the place I want to be, and I’m in a position to take it in.”
Abdul-Rashid’s final purpose in Paris is to achieve the overall or run a private perfect in entrance of her circle of relatives, who will probably be there to give a boost to and cheer her on. “And anything else may occur, so perhaps a countrywide report too,” she provides. Her Olympic adventure will start within the girls’s 100m hurdles heats on Wednesday, Aug. 7.