Allyson Felix won a record 11 Olympic medals and 20 World Championship medals before retiring from the sport in 2022.
NBC 5’s Kristi Nelson scored an exclusive interview with Felix when she stopped in Dallas to support Educational First Steps, a non-profit working to improve the quality and availability of early childhood education for economically disadvantaged children.
They spoke about her remarkable career, motherhood, and the Paris Olympics -- the first in 2 decades where Felix won’t compete.
“I think it'll be a lot of mixed emotions. I've gone to the last five of the Olympics. It's been such a major part of my life,” Felix said. “I think there will probably be moments of sadness that I’m just in a different phase of my life. I think there will be a lot of joy to be able to see it from a different perspective. And then I think of just bringing my family there and them being able to experience it -- us being able to experience it together -- and I think that'll be a really rewarding feeling."
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Felix’s last Olympic appearance in Tokyo, her fifth, was one for the history books. The U.S. Women's 4x400 meter relay team – anchored by Felix -- won gold. They beat the closest competition, Poland, by more than three and a half seconds.
The gold medal win brought her total Olympic medal count to 11, seven of them gold. She now holds more medals than any other American track and field athlete in history.
With all the focus she once put into training and competing, Felix now puts into being a mom, enjoying school drop-off, soccer games and other things she couldn’t do while traveling the world in competition. Her second child was born in April.
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And she advocates for all moms and women athletes.
The company she co-founded with her brother, Saysh, designs athletic shoes to fit the form of women's feet, and has a unique maternity return policy.
"I didn't realize that when you become pregnant that your feet can change sizes, and that often times they don't go back,” Felix said. “And so at our company, we just wanted to say this is just the way that we see women. If you have that happen to you, if your foot changes size due to pregnancy, we'll give you a new shoe in your new size. Just saying, we see you."
In a nod to the Paris Olympics, Saysh launched a collaboration with a French clothing brand on a limited edition women's sneaker.
And Felix announced a partnership with Pampers, to launch the first-ever nursery at the Olympic Village, giving athletes who are parents space to bond with or nurse their babies between competitions -- a shift in culture around female athletes.
“I’m on the International Olympic Committee's Athlete Commission; I represent the athlete's voice and I am really trying to bring change there.”
