Philadelphia

Olympic Medalist Nia Ali Honored at Philly Block Party

Olympic track medalist Nia Ali was celebrated by friends, family and her neighbors in a special post-Rio block party in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood Saturday. NBC10’s Aundrea Cline Thomas has more details from the celebration.

Olympic track medalist Nia Ali was celebrated by friends, family and her neighbors in a special post-Rio block party in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood Saturday.

Dozens of fans and well-wishers took over the 6300 block of Sherman Street to celebrate Ali's silver medal win in the 100 meter hurdles last month.

City and state politicians stopped by to bestow commendations on the 27-year-old who scored the 10th fastest time in U.S. history for the event.

Ali used to race down the streets of Germantown before heading out west to attend college at the University of Southern California.

"A dream of mine has always been to not just make the Olympics, but to be in a position where I could use my platform for something greater than me, something better than me and to have so many kids out here today...I'm happy to have been able to share this with you," Ali told the crowd.

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Nia Ali hurdled from Philadelphia's AAU club track team, the Mallery Challengers all the way to Rio where she captured the silver medal in the women's 100M hurdles Wednesday, August 17, 2016.
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For the first time in Olympic history, the U.S. women took Gold, Silver and Bronze in the event.
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[L-R] Kristi Castlin, Brianna Rollins and Nia Ali were all competing for the first time in The Olympics.
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[L-R] Bronze medalist Kristi Castlin, gold medalist Brianna Rollins and silver medalist Nia Ali celebrating with American flags.
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Wearing a bright red "Team USA" shirt, Titus took a victory lap with his mother.
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Titus, who is 15 months old, was born in May 2015. Both parents are Olympians. His father, Michael Tinsley, took silver in the 2012 400M hurdles.
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"She was just a special, blessed athlete. . .she worked hard, she earned it, she deserves it," said Nia's childhood coach Daryl Murphy.
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"I don't look too far in the future or dwell too much in the past. Things will always fall into place the way they are supposed to fall into place." You can read more about her rise to Rio in this post .
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