Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Shalonda Solomon Nurudeen

Shalonda Solomon Nurudeen was known for sprinting. Now the former South Carolina (2005-2007) track star and member of the 2024 class of the Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hallof Fame is happy in a life that doesn’t move as fast.

“I’m grateful. I love God. I am walking in purpose, and that’s what I want everyone to do,” said Solomon Nurudeen, who is now nurse at Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida. “I work in the mother-baby unit, where I take care of the mothers after they deliver. I help them recover and educate them on all things mother/baby. I help them get comfortable, give them some knowledge, and discharge them. I love that environment. It’s always good to see moms and dads when they embrace their baby for the first time. To see parents that tried unsuccessfully and finally had success, it’s really a blessing.”

A native of California, Solomon Nurudeen took a chance to come across the country for school, and it paid off.

“It fit well for me,” Solomon Nurudeen said. “I wanted to leave California. When I went on my visit, I just felt like it was the right school for me. They had a lot of great athletes at that time. I knew that I could join in and try to be as good as they were.

“Being at South Carolina took me back to my high school days. Practices were never slack. We had a lot of great training partners that pushed me and encouraged me with Coach (Curtis) Frye leading the pack! It set me up for great success.”

Solomon Nurudeen had plenty of success on the track. She holds both 200-meter program records for the Gamecocks, running 22.57 for the indoor record and 22.36 for the outdoor mark. She won three NCAA championships, including the 200m indoor and outdoor crowns in 2006, and was part of the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Champion 4×400 meter relay team. She also won five SEC titles in three years and earned 11 All-America honors.

“I was always grinding, whether it was in school or on the track,” Solomon Nurudeen said. “I got my nursing degree at South Carolina. It took a lot of work to get where I wanted to go, and nursing school wasn’t an easy path. Being in the dorms and hanging around with my teammates and friends, those were good days.”

The good days continued into her professional career. She ran the fastest time in the world in the 200-meter event as a professional in 2011and won the USA National Championship that year to qualify for the World Championships.

“I saw a lot of the people I ran against in college,” Solomon Nurudeen said. “Obviously, the competition got deeper, but it was familiar territory with who I was running against. You have to put the work in to get where you want to go. I am grateful for the championships I did win in college. I never won a state championship in high school, so for me to have won at Carolina and later at USAs, it was a great feeling.”

When it was time to hang up her running shoes, it wasn’t too difficult.

“My transition was great,” Solomon Nurudeen said. “I was running, and I was in the last year of my contract. As I was running, I did some shadowing at a cancer center in Orlando to get my feet wet. Later, my mentor was getting treatment for cancer at the time, and they were asking about me if I wanted to come back and work with them. I was literally at a track meet at the time. I decided it was time to start my career in nursing. I’ve been doing nursing since 2018.”

Upong hearing about her induction into the Hall of Fame, Solomon Nurudeen was speechless.

“My first response was, ‘no way,’ because there is a lot of history at South Carolina and so many great athletes,” Solomon Nurudeen said. “It’s just an honor to be a part of that.

“I am looking forward to being back at Carolina. I haven’t been back since I left. I’m looking forward to seeing how the University has grown and seeing the new track and all the other new facilities.”

Solomon Nurudeen is married to Selim Nurudeen and the couple has two girls with four-year-old Naima and one-year-old Nyomi.