Photo Credit: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
To keep with the theme of Olympics, this week’s spotlight is a current Olympian. Allyson Felix runs track and has participated in multiple Olympic games. Despite her love of track and her Olympic history, Felix has a lot of goals she wants to achieve beyond her athletic abilities. As this week’s spotlight, Allyson Felix is one of the few who doesn’t hold sports as her highest priority but is still wildly successful.
Unlike most athletes, Felix’s track career didn’t develop until later on in her life. At first, Felix was interested in playing basketball, her favorite sport as a kid. In 9th grade, Felix tried out for her high school’s track team and quickly became one of the best in California. Nicknamed “Chicken Legs” by her friends, Felix was known for having long and skinny legs, but off the track, she was actually very strong and fast. Her speed on the track and her ability to lift such heavy weights were what made her such a stellar and unique athlete.
After graduating high school in 2003, Felix decided to forego attending college for the time-being. She signed an undisclosed professional contract with Adidas after high school; Adidas would later go on to pay for her college tuition at the University of Southern California. A year after graduating, Felix participated in her first Olympic games and would place second in the women’s 200 meters event.
She made her second Olympic appearance in 2008. She won another silver medal as she placed second in the 200 meters event, losing to Veronica Campbell. She would bring home a gold medal in the 4×400 meter relay. In 2012, she dominated in the 200 meters and finally won the gold medal. She also won gold medal in the 4×100 meter relay and the 4×400 meter relay. She will be making her fourth Olympic appearance at the games in Rio this August.
Allyson Felix is a four-time recipient of the Jesse Owens award which would later be renamed as the Jackie Joyner-Kersee award. She is the second woman to win it four times after Marion Jones did. She was also named the 2012 IAAF Female Athlete of the Year. In addition to those awards, Felix is a Sports Envoy for SportsUnited which is the U.S. Department of State’s sports diplomacy division. She traveled to Brazil in 2014 to talk about the benefits of playing sports as well as helping children who were either disabled or came from marginalized communities.
Speaking of Felix helping children, there’s an extremely different side to her. After getting her tuition paid for by Adidas, she graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in elementary education. Once her Olympic days are done, she plans to become a teacher like her mother. That’s such a refreshing viewpoint to hear and one that not a lot of athletes would plan on doing after they’re done competing.
