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How three sisters made it from a Brooklyn homeless shelter to the Junior Olympics

Caroline Praderio   

How three sisters made it from a Brooklyn homeless shelter to the Junior Olympics

sheppard-junior-olympics

AP/Richard Drew

The Sheppard sisters.

By day, these sisters are track superstars. But every night after practice, they sleep in a homeless shelter.

Tai Sheppard, 11, Rainn Sheppard, 10, and Brooke Sheppard, 8, live in Brooklyn, New York, with their mother, Tonia Hardy, 46, the Associated Press reports. Their young lives have been tough - but everything changed when a babysitter introduced them to track and field early last year. Since their first meet, the Sheppard sisters have been running circles around the competition. And right now, all three are vying for medals in multiple events at the Junior Olympics in Texas.

"It's been very tough for them," Jean Bell, one of the girls' coaches, told the Associated Press. "They've been moved from one shelter to the next. Their belongings are shuffled around. They don't have a lot to work with but they do the best with what they have."

And it turns out their best is pretty spectacular. Here's a look at their lives on and off the track.

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