Allyson Felix, the most decorated track star in US history, is attempting to stage a comeback at age 40, four years on from announcing her retirement.
Felix, who claimed 11 Olympics medals, retired from the sport at the conclusion of the 2022 season, a year after the Tokyo Games.
However, the mother-of-two has now revealed that she is coming out of retirement with her sights set on the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in two years’ time.
Felix told Time Magazine on Monday she thought about coming back some four years after calling it quits and decided: ‘Let’s go after the thing. Let’s be vulnerable.’
‘You know, at this age, I should probably be staying home and taking care of my kids, doing all that. And just, why not? Let’s flip it on its head,’ she said.
Felix has won 11 Olympic medals – the most by any woman in track – and has a record 20 medals from world championships.
Allyson Felix, the most decorated track star in US history, is attempting to stage a comeback
Felix retired from the sport in 2022 after winning a record 11 medals at the Olympic Games
She said she expects to start full-time training with her coach, Bobby Kersee, in October with the goal of competing in 2027. The Olympics will be in her hometown a year later.
‘I totally get the person who sticks around too long and you’re like, “What are they doing?”‘ Felix said. ‘I know, at 40, I am not at my peak. I have no illusions about that. I’m very clear in what it is and what I want to see. And so I hope it’s seen that way.’
She is a seven-time Olympic champion, with six in the relays and her lone individual gold coming in the 200 meters at the 2012 London Games.
Before retiring in 2022, she became an outspoken advocate for athletes who become mothers and want to keep their careers going.
Felix, who landed a spot on the IOC Athletes’ Commission in retirement, has two kids – Camryn, seven, and Trey, two.
She has spoken candidly about the struggle to come back from the emergency C-section birth that put the lives of both her and her first baby in jeopardy. Camryn actually spent time in the neonatal intensive-care unit after she was born.
Felix cut ties with Nike in 2019, upset with the way the company treated pregnant athletes
Before retiring in 2022, she became an outspoken advocate for athletes who become mothers
Felix is pictured with her husband Kenneth Ferguson and her daughter Camryn in 2020
Around the same time, Felix cut ties with Nike, upset with the way the company treated pregnant athletes.
‘I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth,’ Felix wrote in a New York Times op-ed in May of 2019. ‘I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could?
‘Nike declined. We’ve been at a standstill ever since.’
She spoke of the pressure she felt to return quickly, even when her body wasn’t responding the way it once did.
