‘All anybody can ask’ — Mom Felix wins bronze
TOKYO — Such was the magnitude of Alyson Felix’s bronze medal in the 400 meters race on Friday night, coming at age 35, in her fifth Olympics and less than three years after giving birth to a daughter, that it reduced the historic nature of her accomplishment to a momentary footnote.
It does bear mentioning that Felix now has 10 Olympic medals, tying Carl Lewis for most by an American track and field athlete. But her activism away from the track, campaigning for the rights of working mothers in athletics, is an equally appealing talking point in this Olympic Games cycle of athletes’ rights and mental health discussions.
Felix was considered a long shot to make the U.S. team but did so by finishing second at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., and was not considered a medals favorite in Tokyo.
She drew the outside starting spot in Lane 9 and held off a late challenge by Stephenie Ann McPherson of Jamaica to finish third in 49.46 seconds behind repeat gold medalist Shaunae MillerUibo of the Bahamas (46.36) and Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic (49.20).
After the finish, Felix succumbed to the exhaustion that she said always accompanies the 400 for her, followed by a moment of joy when she saw the final result on the Olympic Stadium scoreboard, followed by more exhaustion.
The evening comes, Felix said, with lessons that she hopes to pass along to her daughter, Camryn, who was born in 2018.
“The biggest thing I want her to know is that when you go out and you do something, you do it with character and you do it with integrity and you do it to the best of your ability, and that’s all anybody can ask of you,” she said. “And if you do that, you’re proud of that. And that’s enough.”
The 400 medal is Felix’s first bronze to go with six golds and three silvers, but it also is different in significance as well as in hue, she said.
“I don’t really rank them, but this one, it’s just so different,” she said. “All the other ones, you know, I was really just so focused on the performance, and this one, it’s so much bigger than that. I felt like I was a representation for so much more than just trying to get down the track.
“I talked to other moms who were out here without their children. People connected with me and, yeah, I had a lot of support.”
Felix’s decision to start a family put her at loggerheads with Nike, her longtime sponsor, which declined to guarantee that her contract payout would not be affected if her performances declined in the wake of childbirth.
Accordingly, she broke away from Nike to become the first athlete to sign with Athleta, a division of Gap Inc. that also has signed gymnast Simone Biles.
That campaign, Felix said, added additional significance to her performance Friday.
“We’re working to change industry standards. I think that’s going to be a long battle,” she said. “Moms are deserving of funding and support. There’s a lot of work to do so there’s still more, but hopefully I’ve got some attention to those things. That’s what I strive to do.”
Felix said she got to see her daughter on FaceTime after the race — “She should have been asleep, but we’ll deal with that later,” she said — but the moment was “was pretty cool. She kind of gets it now when I’m running. She’s always like, ‘Mom was at work, Mom was running,’ and she’s kind of into it.”
Track and field had another mom of considerable note more than 70 years ago in Fanny BlankersKoen of the Netherlands, who won four gold medals in the 1948 Olympics and was dubbed “The Flying Housewife” and “The Magnificent Mom.”
For this millennium, Felix is magnificent in her own right. She expected to medal, and she did.
“I’m also a fan of the sport. I hear the chatter. I knew people thought I was a long shot for me even to be on the U.S. team, and I wasn’t a pick for the medals,” she said. “But, you know what? Give me a shot.
“It’s really hard for me when I don’t win to still have joy. Tonight I have joy.”