Security of ladies athletes ‘an actual downside’

With a document 20 World Championship and 11 Olympic medals to her identify, Allyson Felix is probably the most embellished monitor and area athlete of all time.

And never content material with merely trailblazing on the monitor, in recent times she has turn out to be a fierce advocate for girls, notably within the realm of maternal well being rights.

With violence towards girls athletes overshadowing the game this yr, Felix tells BBC 100 Ladies that she is drastically involved for the protection of ladies athletes in some elements of the world.

“There needs to be a change within the tradition. One thing is just not proper, and it does make me fear,” she says.

Felix says she was devastated to listen to the information of the demise of fellow Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on hearth by her boyfriend in Kenya earlier this yr.

The mother-of-two was the third feminine athlete to be killed in Kenya in three years.

Felix says it is a “actual downside” that she is going to prioritise as a lately elected member of the IOC Athletes’ Fee, a physique that represents athletes throughout the Olympic motion.

“The results need to be extreme, however I feel there needs to be greater than that,” she says. “I feel now we have to rally across the sports activities group and are available collectively.”

The American runner, who retired in 2022, is likely one of the girls featured on the BBC’s 100 Ladies record, which annually names 100 inspiring and influential girls world wide. This yr the record is specializing in the theme of “resilience”, which is especially apt in Felix’s case.

In 2018, when 32 weeks pregnant, she was recognized with extreme pre-eclampsia and given an emergency caesarean. Her daughter, Camryn, hung out in a neonatal intensive care unit.

The next yr, in a highly effective op-ed for The New York Occasions, Felix took on her then-sponsor, Nike, over maternity pay, revealing Nike’s menace to chop her pay by 70% if motherhood affected her future athletic efficiency.

Three months later, Nike modified its stance and new contracts assured an athlete’s pay and bonuses for 18 months round being pregnant. Three different athletic attire corporations additionally launched maternity safety for sponsored athletes.

In her article, Felix wrote being pregnant was “the kiss of demise” in her business.

“I used to be terrified what the results could be. I used to be terrified how it will be acquired. It simply wasn’t in my nature. And so it was actually troublesome to have the ability to simply be weak,” she says.

The choice to talk out might have ended her profession, however lower than a yr after giving beginning, Felix made historical past when she secured her twelfth World Championships gold medal within the 4x400m blended relay in Doha, surpassing Usain Bolt’s document.

Felix has since carved out a brand new path for herself.

Two years after parting with Nike, she launched a footwear firm along with her brother, Wes, in 2021, promoting athletic-inspired footwear modelled on girls’s ft.

This yr, the mom of two was instrumental in making certain there was a nursery within the Olympic village – the primary ever accessible to athletes competing within the Video games.

She considers it an enormous win, however says extra must be accomplished.

“If you do come again, that is an enormous barrier to have the ability to re-enter the game and work out travelling the world and who’s caring in your baby,” she says.

“To have the ability to take one thing off of that plate, that is what I look to do.”

Going ahead, she desires to see sponsors change the best way they signify girls athletes.

Her latest enterprise, All the time Alpha, is a administration agency devoted completely to girls’s sports activities, which she says is a part of her legacy.

“Historically, girls have been put in the identical field [as men]. I feel girls should not be an afterthought, particularly as we take into consideration the enterprise and the way technique is created.

“In all the negotiations with Nike, I used to be coping with a crew of all males, who had been principally telling me how I might come again from childbirth. Now there are extra girls who’ve seats on the desk and have energy, however we nonetheless have a protracted technique to go.”

A part of her function with the Athletes’ Fee can be listening to different athletes and advocating on their behalf.

“If it’s your determination to have a baby within the midst of your profession, then try this,” she says. “We’re working actually exhausting to help girls who make that selection.”

Felix, who gave beginning to her second baby this yr – her son, Trey – has additionally been very vocal in highlighting the disproportionately excessive danger of maternal mortality amongst black girls within the US.

This yr she was awarded a $20m grant from Melinda Gates, to enhance maternal well being outcomes. She has not dominated out utilizing the cash to help world initiatives.

“I’ve most of my expertise within the US and in my very own communities, however I’m actively chatting with organisations all around the world,” she says.

In response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), black girls within the US are 3 times extra more likely to die from a pregnancy-related trigger than white girls.

“There’s nonetheless an implicit bias in our healthcare system, and we’re not seeing the numbers change fast sufficient,” she says.

Felix believes that ladies are too usually being ignored once they report issues to their docs.

“What I hear is that they don’t seem to be being heard,” she says. “It is not going to show round if we’re not educating our medical professionals.”

Felix says having a daughter makes the topic of ladies’s well being “very private”.

With abortion rights again within the highlight following the US presidential election, she believes girls ought to have the ability to have a selection.

“, as a father or mother, now we have seen so many issues change on this planet, it’s a scary time,” she says.

“I do take into consideration her and her technology and the issues that they is perhaps with out.”

However she hopes her advocacy will encourage her youngsters in years to come back.

“I need them all the time to know that you must have an effect, that you must assist others, that you must get up for what you imagine in.”

BBC 100 Ladies names 100 inspiring and influential girls world wide yearly. Comply with BBC 100 Ladies on Instagram and Fb. Be a part of the dialog utilizing #BBC100Women.