Allyson Felix Knows What Really Makes the Olympics Run

The sprinter Allyson Felix has competed in four Olympics, winning more medals in track and field — nine — than any other American woman. Should she make the team for next month’s Tokyo Games, which would almost surely be her last, and earn one more medal, it would make her the most decorated Olympian female track athlete from any country. As she has grown older, Felix, who is 35, has also earned increased attention for her work outside the arena. The difficult birth of her daughter, Camryn, in 2018 caused her to speak out for racial equality in maternal health care. And a 2019 column she wrote for The Times criticizing the maternity policies of Nike, her sponsor at the time — which the company subsequently improved — established her as an advocate for women’s equality in sports. So no matter what happens in Tokyo (or if the Games themselves even happen; they were postponed from last summer), her future will be full, which isn’t to say easy. On the prospect of her life after sports, she says: ‘‘Finding other ways to get the same fulfillment that I get from competition is something that I think about. I’m not sure what the answer is. I just know that getting to a new normal is going to be a process.’’

Japan is not exactly in the best place with Covid, and yet it sure looks as if the Olympics are going to happen — probably because there’s too much money involved to risk postponing them again. Does that make you feel any moral ambivalence about participating? I would do anything to compete. That’s what the Olympics mean to me. That’s who I am. At the same time I understand that a pandemic is going on. We have had so much loss of life, and I don’t want to contribute to any more. So I feel as if I have to be at the mercy of the experts in charge. It’s in their hands. But I can be very honest: I would be devastated if the Olympics didn’t take place.

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