Shireen Ahmed was born to immigrant parents who were both avid hockey fans, in particular supporters of the Montreal Canadiens. She spoke about how she grew up surrounded by sports but it was not until the Olympics that she saw women’s sports being presented on the same level as men’s. Ahmed received a MA in Journalism from Ryerson University (now TMU) and worked as a freelance journalist until she joined the CBC. In 2021 she was the first hijab-wearing and racialised woman to appear on TSN and remains one of only four hijab-wearing sports reporters in the US and Canada.