- Title: Already crowned 'the greatest', Felix takes a victory lap
- Date: 19th August 2021
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 18, 2021) ( REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALLYSON FELIX, SAYING: REPORTER (OFF CAMERA), ASKING: "Congratulations on your fifth Olympics. Now that you've had a couple of weeks to settle in I'm wondering what the last few weeks have been like for you. Spending lots of time with family or getting straight back into training? What's it been like?" FELIX: "It's kind of been a mix of both. Initially, yeah just reuniting with my family. It was really great just to see everybody. Obviously, spend time with my daughter reconnect and then I do have a couple of more races this season, and then it's back to training but it's really nice to be home.†REPORTER, ASKING: "I noticed right before our conversation I noticed that the Prefontaine Classic announced that you are competing in the 200 meters? What does it mean to you to come back and compete on home soil after these incredible Olympic games for you?†FELIX: "Yeah for me it's a lot of fun. I just felt "You know why not?" like run a couple of races and run them at home and the 200 is my favourite event so for me being able to compete at Hayward field is really special."
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2021 10:32
- Keywords: 11 Olympic medals Allyson Felix Olympic Games Olympics Tokyo 2020
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Athletics,Sport,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA003EQY408V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Just two weeks after she picked up gold in the 4X400 relay in Tokyo, her second of two medals from the 2020 Games to become the most decorated woman in track and field history, the 35-year-old American is returning to the track.
But after the pressure of competing in her fifth and final Games - and all of the expectations that came with them - Felix told Reuters the quick pivot to compete in Saturday's Prefontaine Classic is hardly a burden.
"For me, it's a lot of fun," said Felix, who will contend in her favourite event - the 200 metres - in Eugene, Oregon's Hayward Field, where she made a tearful farewell from her final U.S. team trials appearance earlier this summer.
"I really just want to be able to compete again and see the fans and do that. I think that the weight of trials and what that all means, I think that was just a bit heavier."
For the 11-time Olympic medallist and 13-time World Champion, a bit of fun is long overdue.
After giving birth to her daughter, Camryn, via an emergency C-section in 2018, she became an advocate for working mothers, penning an opinion piece in the New York Times in which she said she faced pay cuts from sponsors including Nike for having her child.
Felix circled back to the smaller moments in her career that are out of the spotlight and often forgotten or overlooked.
"I think for me one thing that's kind of stuck in my career is that this idea that we focus so much on goals and for me it's obviously been Olympic performances and medals, for me, I kind of learned along the way that it's been the moments getting there and the moments in between that have really been the most special. You know that have meant the most and that sometimes gets lost. I think it's just kind of life. We spend so much of like honing in on this one thing. It's hyper-focused on. Throughout my career, It's one of those things that I've kind of realized."
(Production: Amy Tennery, Peter Bullock) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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