When she steps up to the starting blocks at the Rio Olympics, wearing her dark wraparound sunglasses and a fierce expression, Nikkita Holder might look a little like Superwoman.
The persona is more than merely skin-deep. And the source of her super powers is her young son Kaedence.
The 29-year-old hurdler clinched her spot in Rio at the recent Olympic trials, the perfect punctuation mark on a roller-coaster couple of years that saw her marriage crumble, and left her a single mom.
Crossing the finish line that memorable afternoon at the trials in Edmonton, her spot on the team finally confirmed, she gave in to the emotions.
"That moment. . . oh man, that was crazy. I completely broke down. I don't even know where it came from, it just kind of came," Holder said. "When I sat down and thought about it, it was: 'Man, I did this. I was able to come back after all this craziness that has happened in my life and still accomplished something big.'
"Getting the opportunity to do so through all of this just showed me: 'Man, Nikkita, you are pretty badass,'" she added, with a happy laugh. "I joke with my girlfriends, and say 'I am definitely Superwoman. It's not going to my head, but. . .'"
Holder married sprinter Justyn Warner just weeks after the London Olympics, where the much-photographed couple had been touted as Canada's track sweethearts. Photos of Holder consoling Warner after the disqualification of the 4x100-metre relay were among the more enduring of those Games.
Kaedence was born in October 2013, but Holder said their marriage fell apart two months later and Warner moved to the U.S. to live and train.
Holder said there was recent talk of working things out. But a few days before Christmas, she said Warner told her he'd remarried. She tumbled head-long into depression.
Holder found comfort in the place she knows best — the track. She drew strength from her young son.
"Anthony (McCleary, her coach) would say 'OK, come to practice,' just to get me out of the house. I didn't want to do anything," Holder said. "And then slowly, over time, things started to get better. I wonder what I would have done, how I would have survived (without track)."
"And I think a lot of what helped was (Kaedence's) development. He started getting a little bit more independent, a little bit more affectionate. He would give me hugs. If I was crying, he would say 'Mommy don't cry,' and wipe my tears."
After the separation, Holder and Kaedence moved back to her childhood home in Pickering, Ont., she shares with mom Sandra and stepdad Lincoln, who's raised her since she was four, plus a younger sister and two younger brothers. Raising her son is a collaborative effort. Kaedence is particularly fond of Lincoln.
During a recent interview, Kaedence played soccer with a guest in Holder's living room. He has a wide smile and wonderfully large head of hair. Shot after shot, he booted the ball with surprising strength and a gleeful giggle.
Holder's divorce wasn't her only source of heartbreak. Her biological dad Jeffrey died suddenly of a heart attack last year, shortly after her 28th birthday. She races in the Pandora bracelet he'd given her as a birthday gift.
She also lost close friend and Canadian teammate Daundre Barnaby, who drowned during a national team training camp in St. Kitts in March 2015.
The tough times, Holder said, have made her stronger.
"As much as it sucked and it hurt and it was painful, it definitely has changed my whole outlook on life. Just everything from Daundre passing away, my dad passing away, us getting a divorce. . . it's definitely changed my view on how to live and how I want to live, it's changed me. And then raising Kaedence.
"He's pretty awesome," she added, with a glance at her son, who'd taken a break from soccer to hand out lollipops. "I'm glad because I have him from it all."
Holder joins Canadian champion Phylicia George and veteran Angela Whyte in Rio, as the trio continues the strong legacy in women's hurdles set by Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien.
Holder said being a single mom gives her strength on the track. Racing, she said, is "way easier" now than it was before Kaedence.
"You know what? I honestly think of it as an advantage against the rest of the field," she said. "Not that I don't have anything to lose, but I don't have anything to lose. I'll go to practice or I'll go to meets, and if I don't win, or I don't get the time that I want, I come home and regardless of what I've done, he's there saying 'Mommy I missed you,' gives me a big hug and a kiss. That's all that I need."
And on the wraparound sunglasses, Holder said she wears them to better focus — she used to be distracted by other hurdlers in her peripheral vision.
She also has seven tattoos. She got her first — a calla lily on her ankle — when she was a 21-year-old at the University of Illinois. She'll add the Olympic rings once Rio is over, and laughed at the fact her mom Sandra has a tattoo of the rings on her forearm.
"I said to my mom 'You didn't even go,'" Holder said. "She said 'Yeah but I made you, and you went.' I was like 'Oh gosh.' It's a focal point and conversation starter for her. She loves it."
Holder was a semifinalist in both the London Olympics and 2015 world championships, and won bronze at the Pan American Games last summer's Pan American Games in Toronto.
The former 100 and 200-metre runner has her sights set on the medal podium in the anything-can-happen 100-metre hurdles event, which begins Tuesday.
"Now at this level, it's anybody's game," she said. "It's not a 100 or 200, there are things in the way, you have to be on your game. You have 10 chances to make up if you've messed up one.
"A technically sound race is what's going to get me to the final."
Warner narrowly missed qualifying for Rio, and announced his retirement a few days later. He says on his website that he continues to "fight hard for time with my son and be the best father I can be. I show my son, by example, what it means to be a good parent and a good man."
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This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.