Talimeren Ao was born on January 28, 1918 at Changki, in the then Naga Hills District of undivided Assam. He was the fourth of eleven children of Rev. Subongwati Ningdangri Ao and his wife Maongsangla Changkilari.
In 1943 Ao joined Mohun Bagan and captained the Maroon and Green in 1948 and 1949, taking over from Sarat Das (his senior in Cotton College, Guwahati). Both Sarat Das and Talimeren Ao played for the Maharana Club in Guwahati.
In Mohun Bagan, Ao was a defender, and was popularly known as ‘the Great Wall of China’. In 1948, he was the captain of the Indian Football Team in London Olympics.
Ao studied medicine at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He earned his MBBS degree in 1963 and returned to Nagaland to take over as the Assistant Civil Surgeon. He retired as the Director of Nagaland Health Services in 1978.
In 2002 the Mohun Bagan Club honored Ao with the Mohun Bagan Ratna Award and giving him a Life Membership. In Assam, one stadium at Kaliabor and the indoor stadium at Cotton College are named after him.
In early 1998 Ao contracted seasonal influenza. He was also a diabetic and was shifted from Dimapur to Kohima, and finally died in the Naga Civil Hospital on September 13, 1998.