Novlene Williams Mills

Early life

Williams-Mills was born in Saint Ann, Jamaica. She is a graduate of Ferncourt High School, located in Claremont, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. She attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she was a member of coach Tom Jones' Florida Gators track and field team. She graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in 2004.

Athletics career

At the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, she won (together with Shericka Williams, Ronetta Smith and Lorraine Fenton) a silver medal. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, she received a bronze medal for her third-place finish in the 400 metres.

At the 2012 Olympic games, Williams-Mills won a silver medal in the 4×400 meter relay. She also placed 5th in the individual 400 m event.

Williams-Mills missed most of the 2013 season due to undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

During the 2014 season, Williams-Mills was very successful. Early in the season, she and three other Jamaican women won a silver medal in the 4x400 m relay at the 2014 world relays. Williams-Mills competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and won a silver medal in the individual 400 m and a gold in the 4x400 m relay, setting a games record in the latter. She was also successful at Diamond League meets, where she was crowned the 2014 Diamond League champion in the 400 m.

In 2015, Williams-Mills again won a silver medal at the world relays as part of the Jamaican 4x400 m team. At the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, Williams-Mills finished sixth in the 400 m final involving four Jamaican women. In the relay, along with Christine Day, Shericka Jackson and Stephenie Ann McPherson, the individual 4th, 3rd and 5th placers, respectively, the Jamaican team won gold in front of the American favorites by just outsprinting them in the last 50 metres.

In 2016, Williams-Mills only competed in the relay at the 2016 Olympic games, running as the anchor leg for Jamaica and bringing them home to win a silver medal.

In 2017, Williams-Mills won the 400 m at the Jamaica invitational, winning in a time of 50.56. Later on in the season, she also won the 400 m at the Diamond League meeting in Paris in a time of 51.03.

At the London 2017 World Championships, Williams-Mills made the final of the women's 400 m and came in eighth place in a time of 51.49. In the 4x400 m relay, which was going to be her last major championship race, she was scheduled to anchor the Jamaican team; however, on the second leg, Anneisha McLaughlin-Wilby pulled up injured, therefore ending the Jamaican team's chances of medalling in that event.

Cancer diagnosis

In July 2013, Williams-Mills told members of the media that she was diagnosed with breast cancer before the 2012 Olympics. Very few people at the time knew about the diagnosis. Despite the diagnosis, she still ran the race and was able to help Jamaica win a bronze medal. After the Olympics, Williams-Mills had a mastectomy and in January 2013, had another operation. She has stated that she would run, "for all the breast cancer survivors out there."