Sep 28, 2020
It's rare for a track & field athlete to appear on Time's List of the 100 Most Influential People of the year, but there is no one more deserving than Allyson Felix for everything she represents both on and off the track. To celebrate Allyson this week for receiving this great honor, we are replaying our prior interview with her (recorded in September 2019).
In this conversation with Chris and Kara, we begin with a quick introduction on her background in sport and then dive into two topics on which Allyson's voice is so important: maternity rights and clean sport.
She discusses how being a mom has motivated her to speak out on topics such as these. She provides her thoughts on what more can be done to protect female athletes during and after their pregnancies. In addition, we talk about the culture within sprinting regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs and what more can be done to create a level playing field. She also gives her perspective on Christian Coleman's whereabouts violations and why missing a drug test is such a big deal, including a story about her one and only missed test while taking an exam at USC.
At the end, we discuss Allyson's sponsorship deal with Athleta and what she is doing to try to make another Olympic team in Toyko.
Allyson is the most decorated track and field athlete of all-time with 27 global championship medals, but her impact off the track is perhaps even more important. Thank you to Time for recognizing that and congratulations again to Allyson for making the list. You deserve it.