Marissa Kurtimah

Biography

Marissa Kurtimah immigrated to Canada in 2002 to escape the civil war in Sierra Leone. While attending the University of Guelph, she won 60m silver at the 2014 CIS Championships. After transferring to Missouri State University she was named to the All-MVC (Missouri Valley Conference) outdoor team in 2014-15. She followed that up in 2015-16 with All-MVC honours both indoors (60m, 200m) and outdoors (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay). Kurtimah was a semifinalist in the 100m at the 2015 World University Games. She ran a personal best 11.34 seconds in the 100m in May 2016 before finishing fifth at the 2016 Canadian Championships. She was named to the 2016 Olympic team as part of the 4x100m relay but did not actually compete in Rio.

Getting to Know… 

Family: Parents Alex and Sally Kurtimah… Four siblings: Edward, John, Cecilia, Chris… Getting into the Sport: Starting running track at age 15 or 16 on the suggestion of a high school teacher but fell in love with everything about the sport, both good and bad… Outside Interests: Enjoys yoga… Studying Criminology at Missouri State University… Odds and Ends: Nickname: Rissa… Favourite quote: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” – Philippians 4:13…