Former Track Star Allyson Felix Talks New Role, Bringing the First Nursery to Olympic Village

The mom of two is on the ground in Paris in a new capacity and fueling change for the sake of mom Olympians and athletes everywhere.

Allyson Felix / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Track star Allyson Felix might never rid herself of the pull of big-time competition.

The 38-year-old retired from professional track and field after the 2022 season. But though she’s no longer running, this time of year still has a unique feel to it, she said in an essay published in Refinery29. “In some ways I’m sure this time of year will always feel like ‘Olympic season,’” she wrote. “My first time competing in the games was 20 years ago, in Athens, and when you devote so much of yourself—your time, your focus, your sweat—to this one thing, it’s almost like you develop an internal Olympic clock that’s set to go off every four years. Part of me is still on that time.”

But this year, for Felix, is different than 2020, 2016 and so on. She isn’t toeing the line in the 400-meter race or the 4x400-meter relay. But she will be on the ground in Paris all the same.

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Her ambitions for the 2024 summer games are much different than they have been in the past. Rather than setting foot on the track, stretching, taking off and winning, Felix is serving as an Olympic correspondent for Yahoo Sports. She is also serving as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission, a position she earned following her retirement. But, perhaps most importantly, she is bringing a much-needed innovation to the Olympic Village: the first nursery in Olympic history.

According to Felix, “It’s a place in the heart of the action, where athlete parents can spend time with their babies and young children: to bond, nurse, play and just experience a level of recognition and respect from the athletic community that has been so lacking in the past,” she said. She gave birth to her first child in the winter of 2018, and a few years later, she arrived at the Tokyo Olympics to compete in her fifth games. Juggling new motherhood and Olympic competition at the Tokyo games wasn’t easy. “I can still remember arriving at the Tokyo games three years ago: having absolutely no idea how I was supposed to be a new mom and an Olympic athlete, and just feeling so alone,” she said.

Now, as a veteran Olympian and a proud mom of two, who understands the pressures that both athletes and mothers face, she’s seeking to do better by athletes who are also moms. Her message is simple, “You can be a mom and be at the very top of your game,” she explained. “I want women to know they don’t have to choose.”⁠