Young Aaliyah Butler needed something to do between cheerleading and gymnastics seasons.
So her parents, Nickholas Butler and Lashelle Oliver, signed the 9-year-old up for the Lauderhill Cheetahs track club. It didn’t go over well.
“She did not like track and field at all,” her father said. “We used to have days struggling just to get her to go to practice and even want to participate.”
Eleven years later, Butler will be competing for the US track and field team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, joined by fellow South Florida natives Kendall Ellis and Twanisha “Tee Tee” Terry.
Growing up in South Florida around so much strong competition helped shaped the three athletes into world-class track stars.
“In South Florida, it’s almost like a dog mentality,” Oliver said. “If you want this, you have to come get it… it’s a lot.”
Butler said his daughter began to change her mind about track when she broke the state record for the 400 meters as a freshman at Piper High School.
“I think that’s when she realized,” he said. “From that point forward, she took it a lot more serious.”
Butler transferred to Miami Northwestern when her coaches at Piper left for another school. Nickholas Butler said Miami Northwestern was the perfect fit for his daughter because of the exposure athletes get from competing at events like the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon.
Terry, who will be competing in the 100 meters, also attended attended Miami Northwestern, and both were coached by Carmen Jackson there.
“Olympic experience being on my team is not new to me,” Jackson said. “[Butler] would be my fifth kid making the Olympic team.”
Jackson said that Butler and Terry shared the attributes all her Olympic athletes have shown: a true love of the sport and commitment to excellence.
“All those kids that have been in these teams, whether it be the Olympics or World Championships, they’re aggressive in this sport and aggressive in their life,” Jackson said.
Terry went to the University of Southern California and won two NCAA Championships in the 4×100 meter relays in 2019 and 2021. Butler left South Florida for the University of Georgia and helped the team finish ninth in the 4×400 relay at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Terry finished third in the 100 meters at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials while Ellis and Butler finished first and second in the 400.
The 2024 games in Paris will be the first Olympic games of Terry’s and Butler’s careers. However, Ellis will be an Olympics veteran this summer. She competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she took home the gold in the 4×400 relay.
Kendall’s parents, Sam and Wanda, moved to South Florida in 1990, where they raised Kendall and her two sisters in Pembroke Pines.
“When she was about 7 years old, she came home from school one day and she was so excited,” Wanda Ellis said. “She was saying she had been at recess that day… she had raced the boys and beat all the boys. She said, ‘Mom, I’m fast, I’m really fast.'”
Ellis’ parents decided to sign her up for the West Pines Optimist track club under coach Alex Armenteros. Ellis would run for Armenteros all the way through high school at Saint Thomas Aquinas.
“Kendall was always special from the age of 7,” Armenteros said. “I always say show me a great athlete, a dedicated athlete, and I’ll show you a great coach. She helped me be a great coach.”
Ellis’ parents realized she may have a serious future in the sport when she won the state championship in the 400 meters as a ninth grader. She would go on to win the state title in all four years of high school.
After high school, Ellis attended USC. She and the Trojans won the 4×400 relay as a senior at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships and she began her professional track career upon graduation. Although she had been considered somewhat of a relay specialist, she won the 400 meters at the US Olympic Trials. Now, she hopes to continue her run of success in Paris.
Sam Ellis said along with strong athletic competition, the diverse community in South Florida helped her grow the most as a person.
“Kendall was exposed to different people throughout her growing up,” he said. “So she has a much broader perspective in terms of relating to people… I think that the competitive nature of South Florida played a huge role in helping her develop into who she’s developed into.”
Ellis’ parents said seeing their daughter grow from those South Florida roots has been gratifying.
“It just kind of dawned on me how much Kendall has grown, you know?” Sam Ellis said. “She’s an adult. She’s a woman.”
All three athletes’ growth will be on display this summer at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where track and field events begin Aug. 1.
