Nia Abdallah likes to joke that she isn’t “real” famous– just kind of famous.
But to know Abdallah’s story and rise from anonymity to becoming the first U.S. woman to medal in taekwondo at the Olympics when she earned Silver during the 2004 Games is to know this Inwood product is the real deal. Abdallah may not be a household name, but she is Houston royalty.
“I’m not famous enough that if we are in the mall, I’m not going to be stopped by everybody,” Abdallah said during a recent conversation with the Defender at a local mall. “But in certain circles, it does feel good for people to know and understand who I am and what I’ve done. But I don’t think of myself as any different … I just feel like a regular human that just did something incredible. I feel equal to a teacher who got Teacher of the Year. I was just the top of the thing that I did.”
Indeed, she was at the pinnacle and flirted with greatness as the kid who came out of nowhere, competing in only one international event –taking Bronze at the 2003 Pan American Games – prior to making the U.S. Olympic team in 2004, to land on the world stage. Since then, life has been a series of highs, like having her daughter, venturing into coaching and now as an executive with Visa.
“I had always been the underdog in the story. I was always the person who people thought, `No way is she going to do it.’ So when I win the Silver Medal and I’m the first (US) woman to win it, immediately I become the person people cheer for. I was like, `y’all cheer for me?’ I didn’t know what to do with that because I always wore that as a battery in my back, `They said I can’t do it. Oh yeah.’”
– Nia Abdallah
But there have been some lows, like dealing with disappointment in trying to make it back to the Olympic team in 2008 and 2012, a messy battle with the USOC, feelings of isolation during her ascend in a sport that didn’t have girls who looked like her and having to seek counseling to help make sense of it all.
What seems like a blessing and a curse to most is just Abdallah’s journey, and she wouldn’t change much about it.
“Of course, it’s a blessing because I got access to things that not everybody has access to. I’ve experienced stuff, I’ve gotten to travel and all those things,” said Abdallah, who was introduced to taekwondo at nine years old by her stepfather. “I had a lot of experiences because of taekwondo. But it was at the expense of social life. This was all that I had. This was my anchor. I wasn’t dating. I had to find friends later. It was at the expense of that and also my career. I literally had to start all over at 28, something most people did at 18. I was kind of 10 years behind the ball.
“It was a give or take, but it was more positive than negative. But there are some things I had to give up.”
Her sacrifices ultimately landed Abdallah where she had secretly dreamed of being: on the Olympic stage. The world was left stunned and amazed as Abdallah came out of nowhere to make it to the Athens Games in 2004. She defeated Sugar Land native Diana Lopez, who would become a nemesis, to get there.
But then came the disappointment of the 2008 Olympic trials when Abdallah lost a controversial match to Lopez for the right to go to the Olympics in Beijing. An expensive lawsuit against the USOC because it was widely believed that the Olympic committee put the more marketable story of the Lopez family — two brothers and their sister competing in the Olympics in taekwondo and the brother who coached them all — over the actual results on the mat.
The lawsuit was eventually dropped.
Abdallah finally walked away and retired at 28, following another failed attempt to make the Olympic team in 2012. Her main reason for walking away was that she was now a parent and wanted to focus on raising her daughter.
“But the other thing was I wanted to retire on my own terms,” said the 41-year-old. “I didn’t want an injury to do it.”
That’s when Abdallah, who says she was really like an 18-year-old at 28, began her new life as an everyday person. She started building her career, working in customer service-related jobs and considering education, before the USOC stepped in and helped her get a job with Visa in a rotational program that had her work in various capacities of the company to figure out her passion.
The George Washington Carver High School graduate has ultimately settled into a Business Analyst role, but desires to work in sports eventually. If not within Visa, Abdallah says working with the WNBA would be great, and if the Comets were to return to Houston, that would be perfect.
“Somewhere where I can utilize these skills in sports,” she said. “I’m 41 now and the sky is the limit for me.”
In the meantime, Abdallah is still heavily involved in the Olympic movement on the local and national levels. She is the vice president of the Houston Olympic Chapter after previously serving as the group’s treasurer.
Abdallah also received a proclamation from the city recognizing Sept. 14 as Nia Abdallah Day. On her day this fall, she plans to release her autobiography detailing her journey, which has mostly gone untold.
It’s all coming together for Abdallah, although getting here wasn’t always easy.
“What I struggled with the most was that I was told that if I worked hard, I would get it,” she said. “And I didn’t feel I wasn’t given the thing that I earned. I struggled with that. But it was a big lesson in that sometimes the working part doesn’t get the outcome that you want, but working hard gets you something for working hard.
“I thought because I didn’t get my outcome that I had failed, but I really didn’t. That hard work shows up with me working at Visa, or being able to be VP of the Houston Olympians. All that hard work kind of ties into how I am today.”
