Shamier Little (born March 20, 1995) is an American track and field sprinter specializing in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

. As a 20-year-old college sophomore at Texas A&M University, Little was the 2015 US champion. She then went on to win the silver medal in her signature event at the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and 2023 World Championships. In July 2021, she became the fifth fastest woman of all time at the event.

Prep

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Little is the child of athletic parents, her father a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

cornerback and her mother a star basketball player and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er at Eastern Kentucky University. Shamier began participating in youth track and field as an 8 year old. She made her first appearance at the national level at the 2004 USATF Youth Championships as a

100 meter The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

sprinter running for the University of Chicago Youth Track Club. She regularly participated in

all comers track meet All comers track meets are usually small local events, considered the grassroots of the sport of track and field athletics. Organization of these meets can range from "professional" to almost disorganized. Some meets are so small that only a coup ...

s. Later Little ran for the Country Club Hills Gazelles both in USATF and AAU competitions. None of her early youth competitions could be labeled exceptional. At Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy in Chicago, Little got more serious setting the IHSA Class 2A records in

100 meters hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is p ...

200 meters The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

and

400 meters The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is on ...

. She won the 2011 AAU Junior Olympics at 400 hurdles. In 2012, she won the Arcadia Invitational in the 400 meters, which she repeated in 2013. She won the Junior National Championships in 400 hurdles, which qualified her for the

2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition for athletes qualifying as juniors (born 1993 or later) which was held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on 10–15 ...

, but she did not finish the final, falling over the last hurdle while in medal contention. In 2013, Little tried 100 meters hurdles and 400 at the National Championships, finishing off the podium in both.

Career

After high school, Little chose to go to Texas A&M University. As a freshman, she won the NCAA Championships at 400 hurdles and helped her team get second place in the

4 × 400 meters relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. Later that summer, she won the 2014 World Junior Championships in the 400 hurdles. In 2015, before winning the national championship against the big girls, she repeated as

NCAA Champion The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, running the #1 time worldwide to that point in the season. The National Championship offered Little an invitation to run in the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

, where she took the gold medal. In 2016, Little won a third consecutive NCAA 400 m hurdles champion title.

Achievements

All information taken from World Athletics profile.

Personal bests

International competitions

Circuit wins

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

meetings :: 400 metres hurdles wins, other events specified in parenthesis :*

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Zürich Weltklasse , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

: Lausanne Athletissima,

London Anniversary Games The London Diamond League, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Dia ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

: Lausanne :*

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

: Rabat Meeting International ()

National and NCAA titles

* USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships **

400 m hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ar ...

NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships The NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships are the annual collegiate track and field competitions for women athletes representing Division I institutions organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). At ...

** 400 m hurdles:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Shamier Living people 1995 births Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky Track and field athletes from Kentucky American female hurdlers American female sprinters African-American female track and field athletes Pan American Games track and field athletes for the United States Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games Texas A&M Aggies women's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century American people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century American sportswomen Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy alumni