Allyson Felix- A Living Legend

By: Derick Zhang

Back in April this year legend track and field athlete Allyson Felix said that this was going to be her last year as an athlete. It was a tragic moment for the track and field community, she had endured and helped so much on and off the track. She was a star in the sport and will go down a hero.

Allyson Felix started off in 2003 when, 17 years of age finished second in the 200m at the US trials to qualify for her very first world championship and after that and in 2005 she was the youngest world champion in history by winning the 200m dash. Now is crown that most decorated track and field athlete of all time. She has 19 medals in 5 events which 13 of them are golds from the world champs. She was also taken even 11 medals from the Olympics 7 of which are also gold. Even after pre-eclampsia (a potentially dangerous complication) 2018, even after that she came back in 2021.

Though great on track she was as good off it. After she got pre-eclampsia, she found out that preeclampsia is disproportionately prevalent among African American women in the US and her experience inspired her to raise awareness of maternal mortality. And in 2019 at the Capitol, she said “After enduring the two most terrifying days of my life, I learned my story was not so uncommon. There were others like me, just like me… black like me, healthy like me and doing their best, just like me. And they faced death like me, too. We need to provide women of color with more support during their pregnancies. There’s a level of racial bias within our healthcare system that is troubling and will be difficult to tackle, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.”

Other than speaking up for people of color she spoke for women to. She made a huge effect she wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times telling them that her sponsor, Nike wanted to pay 70 percent less because she was a mother now and 3 months later Nike changed it's on maternity pay and promised not to apply any performance-related salary reductions for 18 consecutive months. After parting away from Nike, she made her own footwear company called Shaysh. Allyson Felix is a hero and is still fighting to this day, if she ever goes down, she will go down a track legend, African American and Women’s activist.