Black Girl Magic

By USC Athletics Black History Month

February 28^th, 2017

by Grace DeWitt

Nia Ali lined up on the blocks for the final of the 100-meter hurdles. Alongside her crouched two American teammates and the world’s best hurdlers from Great Britain, Canada and the Bahamas.

“The USA with a strong chance to sweep,” chirped the commentator before the starting pistol. “Can somebody stop them?”

Just under 13 seconds later, he had his answer.

The United States of America has a history of prowess at the Olympic Games, and the 31st Olympiad was no exception. American athletes dominated the competition in Brazil, finishing with a 51-medal margin over the second place team.

There is no denying that the United States’ success in Rio de Janeiro was girl-powered. The women of Team USA won 61 of the country’s 121 medals, a new record. Had they competed as their own country, they would’ve ranked fourth among all nations in the overall medal count and tied for second in the gold medal count.

At the center of that effort, scores of black women inked their names in the history books: Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas on the mat, Simone Manuel, Ashleigh Johnson and Lia Neal in the pool, Michelle Carter on the field, Claressa Shields in the ring, Venus Williams on the court and USC alums Allyson Felix, Dalilah Muhammad and Nia Ali on the track.

With her event slated towards the end of the Olympic schedule, Ali felt the momentum building among black women at the Games long before hitting the track.

“You see things come out of people in clutch moments and I’m like, ‘I really need to step up to the plate and be a part of this wave right now,’” Ali said. “Because it was a wave, it’s just what it was.”

And catch the wave she did. Ali won her first-round 100-meter hurdle heat with ease, taking the lead at the midway point. The next day she continued her success by winning her semifinal heat. American teammates Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin rounded out the semifinal winners, a hint that history could be made later that evening.

“The semis just let us know, ‘Hey, it’s working in our favor and we need to keep our heads on straight and just keep having fun with it,’” recalled Ali.

Hours later, the American trio continued its fun in the final. On the world’s biggest stage, Rollins finished clear ahead of the pack to take the gold, with Ali commanding silver. But the third place finish wasn’t as certain. The Americans gathered together past the finish line, catching their breath and congratulating their competitors while keeping their eyes glued to the scoreboard.

Thirty long seconds of uncertainty passed. Finally, the moment they had been waiting for: Castlin had taken the bronze, finishing just .02 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Cindy Ofili.

The moment marked not only the first sweep for any country in the 100-meter hurdles, but also the first time ever that three American women had swept the medal stand in any Olympic event.

Beyond the obvious, the women were initially unaware of what exactly they had accomplished.

“We had no idea that that was going to be the case,” said Ali of the milestone. “We went through our interviews and that’s when we began to soak it up. We would interview with different people and they would tell us, ‘Do you know you just did this?’ or ‘You just made history,’” she said. “So we’re all scattered around different areas doing interviews, but we kept looking at each other like, ‘Wait, are you kidding? Did you know this?’

“To not even have that be in your plans, just to plan to go out there and win and to come out with this is so much greater than anything we could’ve imagined. We all medaled and we made history, and black history at that.”

Once the surge of emotions calmed and they realized the gravity of their accomplishments, it was time to seize the moment. Rollins proclaimed, ‘Black girls rock!’ as she received her trophy on the podium, Castlin dedicated her medal to victims of gun violence and Ali celebrated the moment with her 15-month-old son Titus, who joined her for photos and a victory lap.

“I’m definitely happy I was able to inspire so many mothers in general, especially young black mothers,” said Ali.

“I’m just hoping to be able to send a message to black women everywhere, women everywhere, that that is your strength -- that your children and being able to bear a child is your strength. You can definitely move forward in ways that you couldn’t have imagined, like I did for the Olympics.”

A photo taken just after the race of Rollins, Ali and Castlin leaping into the air, arms and smiles spread wide with the American flag across their shoulders, quickly went viral. Accompanying that photo as it made its way around the Internet was a hashtag emblematic of Team USA’s success at the Olympics: #BlackGirlMagic.

“That picture wasn’t planned,” Ali said. “Nothing was planned. For the picture to go viral, for us to come out with such high goals … I think it just speaks volumes of what we can be when we come together in prayer, in unity, and we just really do things from the heart.

“It meant a lot to me for black children to look at the TV and see us. We all look different, we’re all shaped different, we all come from different backgrounds and look we’re here making history together,” she continued.

“I think black women and black children need to realize how strong we can be when we come together. We can be strong together, we don’t have to tear each other down, we can come together in competition and it can still be something beautiful.”

Six months have passed since her night of Olympic glory and Ali’s gratitude grows stronger by the day.

“The more you get away from it, the more you start to appreciate the fact that you were a part of it and that you got to be there to experience it,” she said. “That you got to come across some of these black women, these strong black women.”

Being a part of that group of women and the #BlackGirlMagic of Rio 2016 is a privilege that Ali doesn’t take for granted.

“I sent [Rollins and Castlin] a text recently and I was like, ‘Hey, legit...we’re Black History.’ We can celebrate this month and it has a whole new meaning for us because we’re a part of it now.”