Nia Ali's Nine Inch Tales

Published by the IAAF on March 20, 2014

When Nia Ali lowered into the blocks in Sopot, she was already nine inches (about 23cm) behind her fellow competitors. But don't worry, what at first sounds like either a fatal miscalculation or a bizarre self-imposed handicap, turns out to be very much part of the plan...

“I started about nine inches behind the line" confirms Ali, speaking to SPIKES in the wake of her victory in Sopot. “If I hadn’t started that far back, I would have crashed into the first hurdle. It is not so unusual for a hurdler to do that. Joanna Hayes [2004 Olympic 100m hurdles champion] used to sometimes move her start back a few inches or so. It is only a small difference.”

The technical adjustment was made to accommodate Ali's newly increased speed and her decision to revert to an eight-stride approach to the first hurdle (having briefly experimented with seven strides). It paid off, and Ali stormed to victory against a talented field which included Australia's Olympic champion and pre-race favourite Sally Pearson.

Ali's athletic ability was apparent from a young age. As a child in Philadelphia almost two decades earlier, a six-year-old Ali defeated a boy two years her senior in a sprint. In high school, she excelled at both softball and basketball as well as athletics. Upon graduating, she headed off to the University of Tennessee.

After transferring to the University of Southern California, Ali found success as a multi-eventer, finishing fourth in the heptathlon at the 2009 NCAA Championships, with a score of 5824 points.

Her prospects looked bright until a tragedy rocked Ali's life to the core. Her father was killed in a murder-suicide in her home city of Philadelphia.

Recounting the harrowing period as "very tough" she took a year away from the sport to grieve, and reassess her goals. With the unstinting support of her family, friends and teammates, she decided to return to the track.