Nia Ali's mom, Melita Johnson, always knew her daughter, who first ran on the streets of Philadelphia, would compete in the Olympics someday.
"When Nia says she's going to do something, she does it," Johnson told NBC10 ahead of the Rio games. "When she said she wanted to be an Olympian, I believed it. I just knew."
The mother's intuition was spot-on -- and then some. Ali, 27, won silver Wednesday night in the 100-meter hurdles, joining two other U.S. runners who swept the race. With her mom and her toddler son, Titus, watching from the stands in Rio, Ali pounded the track and sailed over the hurdles, finishing in just 12.59 seconds -- the 10th-fastest time for the event in U.S. history.
[PHI Photos] Golden, Silver u0026 Bronze Philadelphia-Area Athletes
Ali's journey to the Olympics hasn't been an easy one. Raised in Philadelphia's hard-scrabble Germantown neighborhood, she eventually left to pursue track and her dreams of going bi-coastal, heading to college at the University of Southern California.
But while she went to school, tragedy struck back home: In 2009, her father, Aleem Ali, shot his girlfriend to death in West Oak Lane before turning the gun on himself, taking his own life. Both city workers, Aleem Ali and the woman's deaths stunned the city, and the shock of it left Nia Ali, 3,000 miles away in California, reeling.
But eventually, she managed to pick herself back up and apply what she learned from her father's death to her time on the track, coming back stronger and more determined than ever.
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"I was able to pick myself apart and learn that I am my biggest [obstacle]," Ali told the Orange County Register in 2011. "I will hold myself back. My mind is so strong and there have been so many times where I would just defeat myself before a race, before anything, before I got to the end, I would just defeat myself. So I had to learn how to get over myself to be successful."
Ali flashed a wide smile as she celebrated with her fellow U.S. medalists on the track after the race, each woman donning an American flag to wear over her shoulders. Her 2-year-old son, Titus, eventually joined his mom to celebrate on the track, wide-eyed and excited but too young to know yet the full significance of the moment. Ali's medal makes Titus the son of two silver medalists: His father, Michael Tinsley, won silver in 2012 in the 400-meter hurdles in London and is back again in Rio.
Back home in Philadelphia, Daryl Murphy, who coached Ali since she was 6 years old, shed tears of joy after her successful race. He watched Ali race alongside his family in his East Mount Airy living room.
"She worked for this. She worked very hard for everything she's accomplished," Murphy said, tears welling in his eyes.
He said he sees Ali achieving even more in the future, if she decides to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
"She's the first athlete I coached that ever made the Olympics and ever medaled ... she earned it and she deserves it," Murphy continued. "She's made everybody here in Philly proud. She just keeps getting better."
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Ali told NBC10 before she left for Rio that love, support and faith help her get through her races.
"I never know until I cross the line and look at my phone and see so much love and support form people, and I'm like, 'Wait, you were watching?'" Ali said. "There were people from middle school and teacher watching, so it made me really want to do it ... I prayed to God and said, 'I know a lot of people want you to be with them right now, but I need you.' So my faith is strong and I believe that I was one of the chosen ones."
