His record is one of the finest in athletics.
With her eleven medals (including seven gold) at the Games (from 2004 to 2021) and her thirteen world champion titles, Allyson Felix had nothing left to prove on the track.
At 36, the Californian sprinter, who may have just played her last race this weekend, has decided to embark on a vast program to help athletes whose motherhood can be complicated.
Allyson Felix has just founded a program with AndMother, the NGO she co-founded with Alysia Johnson-Montaño, an 800-meter specialist, to provide free childcare services for athletes.
"In athletics, the culture around pregnancy was silence," says the mom of Camryn, born in late November 2018. as if they had a wound.
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“My hope is that this service will help raise awareness around the need for a better #childcare system both in sports and beyond.”
— @allysonfelix 💯♥️https://t.co/h4PORXmWHp via @runnersworld #CareCantWait pic.twitter.com/27jyC1Dlh3
— &Mother (@andMother_org) June 23, 2022
This operation began in recent days during the American national championships which took place in Eugene (Oregon), the next site of the world championships (from July 15 to 24).
A national childcare provider offered programs for children, with several fun activities.
Subsidies are also on the program to cover childcare for athletes who need it.
Felix hopes this free daycare model will become the norm in athletics.
"That's the only reason I wanted to come back and run this season," said the most successful female athlete in history in major competitions.
Allyson Felix was made aware of these maternity concerns after becoming a mother.
When she was 32 weeks pregnant, the doctors treating her diagnosed her with severe pre-eclampsia (pregnancy pathology characterized by high blood pressure), a life-threatening condition.
She had to undergo an emergency caesarean and her daughter spent the first month of her life in a neonatal intensive care unit.
“The culture around pregnancy was silence”
Nike, one of her sponsors at the time, refused to pay her during her maternity leave.
The athlete had left the iconic brand, and the brand eventually changed its policy and added payment protections for pregnant women and new mothers.
Other brands of sportswear then followed suit.
“I felt like I was being used in multiple marketing campaigns to tell women and girls they could do anything when internally I was having such a hard time,” Felix explained.
In athletics, the culture around pregnancy was silence.
Either the athletes were hiding their pregnancies to get new contracts, or their contracts were up and on hold almost as if they had an injury.
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On the sporting level, Allyson Felix may have played his last major race last Saturday.
Only 6th in the national 400m final, the champion failed in her attempt to qualify for the Worlds.
She still has the possibility of participating in one of the American relays for Eugene: "I think I should be in a good position for a mixed relay or something like that" she also confided to the end of the weekend.
