Bio

My name is Halimat Ismaila, I'm from Nigeria, Africa. I live in small home with my mother, father, little brother, and three of my cousins. When I was 15 my family took in my three cousins because their parents couldn't afford to feed them. I was born in Nigeria, Africa, January 31st, 1984. My father is a taxi driver and is gone most of the day, my mother is a nanny and stays at home to do house work. She cooks our food, cleans the house, does the wash, and while she's doing all that she watch's three kids form our town. My brother and I have been home schooled becuase we didn't have enough money to send both of us. After a while my parent's saved up and let me go to Asero High School.

When I was younger kids from my neighbor hood and I, use to have races to see who could run the fastest from one end of the street to another. I always won but sometimes my best friend, Nkoyo, would win or we would tie. Her family had more money than us, so she went to school when she was young to. My favorite thing to do was to run, I could run and run forever until I ran out of breath. In high school I was on the track team and our school always placed good anywhere from 5th to 1st. At one of my track meets, I was told that a scout was there to watch me run. After my meet the scout wanted me to go train at his gym and he even offered me a scholarship. I declined his scholarship to stay behind and help out around the house but I did tell him I would love to train with him at his gym. After months of training he took me to the 2008 Olympics and I ran the 100, 200, and 400 meter race. He was so happy with me that I'm going to the 2012 Olympics in London, you have no idea how excited I am!