Background
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Little is the child of athletic parents, her father a football cornerback and her mother a star basketball player and high jumper at Eastern Kentucky University.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Little is the child of athletic parents, her father a football cornerback and her mother a star basketball player and high jumper at Eastern Kentucky University.
Shamier began participating in youth track and field as an 8 year old. She made her first appearance at the national level at the 2004 USATF Youth Championships as a 100 meter sprinter running for the University of Chicago Youth Track Club. She regularly participated in all comers track meets.
Later she ran for the Country Club Hills Gazelles both in USATF and Amateur Athletic Union competitions.
None of her early youth competitions could be labeled exceptional. At Robert Lindblom Mathematics & Science Academy in Chicago, Little got more serious setting the IHSA Class 2A records in 100 meters hurdles, 200 meters and 400 meters.
In 2013, she tried 100 meters hurdles and 400 at the National Championships, finishing off the podium in both. After high school, Little chose to go to Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University.
The National Championship offered Little an invitation to run in the 2015 Pan American Games, where she took the gold medal.
As a 20-year-old college sophomore at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, she became the 2015 United States champion at 400 meters hurdles. She won a silver medal in the 400m hurdles at the 2015 World Championships. She won the 2011 Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics at 400 hurdles. In 2012, she won the Arcadia Invitational in the 400 meters, which she repeated in 2013. She won the Junior National Championships in 400 hurdles, which qualified her for the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but she did not finish the final, falling over the last hurdle while in medal contention. As a freshman she won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships at 400 hurdles and helped her team get second place in the 4x400 meters relay. Later that summer she won the 2014 World Junior Championships in the 400 hurdles. In 2015, before winning the national championship against the big girls, she repeated as National Collegiate Athletic Association Champion, running the #1 time worldwide to that point in the season.
