Allyson Felix

Allyson Felix (born November 18, 1985, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an American sprinter who is the most decorated female Olympian in track and field. Her 11 Olympic medals—7 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze—are also the most won by an American track and field athlete.

Early life and education

Felix was the younger of two children born to Marlean Felix, an elementary school teacher, and Paul Felix, an ordained minister and professor. While growing up, Allyson Felix initially played basketball, but, during the ninth grade at Los Angeles Baptist High School, she joined the track team. Although teased by her teammates for her lanky frame—which was not a typical build for sprinters—she quickly became a sensation. As a sophomore in 2001 she won the California state title in the 100 meters (the first of her five state titles in sprints). That same year she won the 100-meter gold medal at the World Youth Championships in Hungary. As a senior she set the under-20 world record in the 200 meters, with a time of 22.11 seconds, and was named High School Athlete of the Year by Track and Field News magazine.

In 2003 Felix enrolled at the University of Southern California but opted not to run collegiate track. Instead, she turned pro and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas. In 2008 she graduated with a degree in elementary education.

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Results from 2004 to 2015

Felix burst onto the Olympic scene at the 2004 Games in Athens, where she won a silver medal in the 200 meters. A year later she won a gold medal in the 200 meters at the world championships in Helsinki. Felix continued to shine in 2007. At that year’s world championships in Osaka, Japan, she earned gold medals in the 200 meters, the 4 × 100-meter relay, and the 4 × 400-meter relay. She was just the second woman to earn three golds at a single world championships.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Felix captured her first Olympic gold medal, as a member of the 4 × 400-meter relay team. She also repeated as the silver medalist in the 200 meters. At the 2009 world championships in Berlin, Felix took gold again in the 4 × 400-meter relay and became the first woman to win the world 200-meter title three times. The following year she signed an endorsement deal with Nike. At the 2011 world championships in Taegu, South Korea, she garnered four medals: two golds (in the 4 × 100-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter relay), one silver (in the 400 meters), and one bronze (in the 200 meters). That set the stage for a historic performance at the 2012 Olympics in London.

In London Felix finally took home the Olympic gold medal in the 200 meters, having finished with a time of 21.88 seconds to edge out Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica. In addition, Felix was on the winning teams for the 4 × 100-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter relay. In the process, she became the first American woman to win three track and field gold medals at an Olympics since Florence Griffith Joyner at the 1988 Games in Seoul.

At the 2013 world championships in Moscow, Felix suffered a hamstring injury during the 200-meter final that forced her out of the race and required a lengthy recovery. She returned to competition in 2014, and, at the following year’s world championships in Beijing, she captured the 400-meter title. In addition, she won silvers in the 4 × 100-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter relay.

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Later career: 2016 to 2022

In 2016 Felix continued to make history. At that year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she became the first female track and field athlete to earn six career Olympic gold medals. She achieved that milestone by helping the U.S. team win the 4 × 100-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter relay. Besides that, she took silver in the 400 meters. Felix left Rio with a total of nine career Olympic medals, equaling Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey for the most Olympic medals won by a female in track and field. In 2017 Felix won three medals at the world championships in London (golds in the 4 × 100-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter relay and bronze in the 400 meters), pushing her career total to 16 medals and making her the most decorated athlete (male or female) in the history of the world championships.

In November 2018 Felix gave birth to a daughter, Camryn, who was delivered by emergency cesarean section. Some eight months later she returned to competition. At the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar, she won gold medals in the 4 × 400-meter relay and the 4 × 400-meter mixed relay. At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), Felix captured the bronze medal in the 400 meters, with a time of 49.46 seconds. She thus broke her tie with Ottey for the most Olympic medals won by a female track and field athlete. Felix later teamed with Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad, and Athing Mu to win gold in the 4 × 400-meter relay. With her 11th career Olympic medal, Felix surpassed the American record of 10 in track and field that had been set by four-time Olympian Carl Lewis.

In 2022 Felix announced that she would be retiring at the end of the season. Her last competition was the world championships in Eugene, Oregon. There she was a member of the U.S. teams that won a gold medal in the 4 × 400-meter relay and a bronze medal in the 4 × 400-meter mixed relay. Felix ended her career with a record 20 world championship medals.

Activism

Off the track, Felix was known for calling attention to various issues. In 2019 she testified at a U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing that focused on racial disparities in maternal mortality rates in the country. She described her experience of giving birth and stated that her testimony was part of an effort to raise awareness of the disproportionate risks that African American women face during pregnancy.

Felix also spoke out about the issues facing athlete moms, including the lack of maternity protections in endorsement contracts. In 2019 Felix wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which she revealed her contract dispute with Nike, which sought pay cuts because of her reduced performance during her pregnancy and following the birth of her daughter. Several months after the op-ed appeared, the company changed its maternity policies. In 2022 she gave a TED talk about fear in which she discussed the difficulties of being a mother in the sports world.