How Allyson Felix Balances Record-Breaking Running With Off-the-Track Advocacy
Allyson Felix knew this Olympic Games would be memorable. Even before the champion earned her 10th and 11th medals in Tokyo, she had announced this Olympics would be her last. But don’t expect Felix to disappear anytime soon.
“The Tokyo Games really was about so much more than just what was happening on the track,” Felix tells SELF a few days after arriving home from Tokyo, where she earned bronze in the 400 meters and gold in the 4×400-meter relay. “It was about representing for women and for mothers.”
For the past several years, representing for mothers has become a central part of Felix’s life, especially following the birth of her daughter, Camryn, who is now 2. She has honed her voice as an advocate, fighting to reduce Black maternal mortality in the U.S., and for maternity protections for female runners, subsequently inspiring change in the running industry. She’s also started her very own footwear company, Saysh, which she’s described to SELF previously as built “for women by women.” The company debuted about one month before the Games kicked off, and Felix made history by racing in spikes she helped design, marking the first time a track athlete raced in their own brand of shoe, according to Women’s Running.
Now, officially retired from the Olympics—but not from her sport entirely—the most decorated track star in U.S. history sat down with SELF to discuss her advocacy plans for the future and how she wants to be remembered. Keep reading for five pieces of advice we took away from the conversation.
1. Your experiences can shape your voice in unexpected ways.
Over the past few years, Felix has experienced her share of adversity. But it’s those experiences, she says, that have led her to a pivotal stage: “finding my voice,” she says.
Back in 2018, Felix gave birth to Camryn by emergency C-section when she was 32 weeks pregnant because of severe preeclampsia. Afterward, her daughter spent weeks in neonatal intensive care.
“Becoming a mother really gave me that courage to be able to speak up and speak out, to just really passionately feel all of those things,” Felix says. “I definitely had to evolve and get to this place, but I’m feeling really grateful that I did arrive, and that I have been able to use my voice on things that I feel are important.”
Felix ultimately became an advocate for reducing Black maternal mortality. In partnership with the March of Dimes, she testified in front of Congress in 2019 about her birth experience, with the goal of raising awareness about the fact that Black pregnant people die in childbirth and postpartum at an alarming rate in the United States. Then in March of this year, she joined the Hear Her campaign sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bring attention to potentially urgent warning signs during pregnancy.
Felix’s pregnancy also sparked her to advocate for mothers in sport too. Felix was training for the 2019 World Championships and negotiating a renewal of her professional contract with Nike when she faced what she described as a lack of support from her then primary sponsor. In May of that year, Felix penned a powerful opinion piece in The New York Times where she shared that she was unable to secure maternity protections from the footwear company.
After months of public outcry and a congressional inquiry, Nike announced a new maternity policy for all sponsored athletes. Several other apparel companies also added maternity protections for their athletes too.