Taylor was born in Jamaica on September 28, 1958. Her breakout performance came at the 1979
Pan Am Games, where she took a
bronze in the
100 m and a
silver in the
200 m, and set
national records of 11.20 and 22.80 respectively. Despite Canada's boycott of the
1980 Olympic Games in
Moscow, she dominated post-Olympic competition in the summer of 1980, winning several meets, and finishing second in the 100 m to
Marlies Göhr, and third in the 200 m behind
Bärbel Wöckel at the final stop in
Zürich. She was the 200 m champion at the
Liberty Bell Classic (which was an alternate to the boycotted Olympics). She lowered her national records to 11.12 for the 100 m and 22.55 for the 200 m by the end of the 1981 season. Taylor was the
1982 Commonwealth 100 m champion in 11.00, a
Commonwealth record and Games record, and anchored Canada to a
gold in the
4 × 400 m relay, holding off
Raelene Boyle. She also took a bronze in the 200 m and won a silver as part of the 4 × 100 m relay. Once again she improved upon the Canadian records for 100 m (11.00) and 200 m (22.25), She injured her
sciatic nerve in the off-season training for the 1983 season, which troubled her for the rest of her career. In 1983, she won a bronze in 100m at the
World University Games held in
Edmonton. She also won silver in the 4 x 100-metre relay. After finishing a disappointing seventh in the 100 metres at the world championships, she opted out of the relay. Taylor won an Olympic silver medal as part of the Canadian 4 × 100 m relay team in 1984. In 1985, she was made a Member of the
Order of Canada. She also gave birth to her first child. In 1986, now known as Angella Issajenko, she was again
Commonwealth Champion, this time in the 200 metres. She also won a bronze in the 100 m and a silver as a member of the 4 × 100 m relay team. Issajenko broke the
world 50 m record indoors with a 6.06 clocking in
Ottawa in 1987. She won a silver medal in 1987 World Indoor Championships in a tight finish with
Nelli Cooman, both women were timed in 7.08, but after a photo finish the judges gave the Championship to Cooman, who looked to have crossed the line with her shoulder first. In the summer of 1987, she again broke the national record for 100 m with a time of 10.97 and finished fifth at the
World Championships. Between 1979–1987, she was ranked inside the world's top ten in the 100 metres six times, and in the 200 metres three times. Taylor-Issajenko was a part of the
doping regime of
George Astaphan, the physician who supplied
Ben Johnson with
stanazolol. After Issajenko's training partner Johnson tested positive for
stanozolol in 1988, she testified in the
Dubin Inquiry and gave a detailed account of widespread substance abuse in
athletics which included her reading from her diary. She later told her story to writers
Martin O'Malley and Karen O'Reilly for her biography
Running Risks which was a detailed tell-all of her sprinting experiences and her dealings with performance-enhancing drugs. Today Issajenko is a single mother of four grown children. As of 2008, she works full-time with learning-disabled grade school students and has returned to track and field as a coach based out of the city of
Toronto's track and field center on the
York University campus. Personal bests: 100m – 10.97, 200m – 22.25, 400m – 51.81 . ==Achievements==