- Published: Jul 31, 2019 4:46 PM EDT signed a clothing sponsorship deal Felix will be the first-ever sponsored athlete for Athleta.
- This deal is Felix’s first contract since she placed 6th overall, How Tara Dower Shattered the Long Trail Record.
- Under her new deal, Felix will be outfitted in Athleta apparel, but not shoes. According to.
What to Expect from Running While Youre Expecting, Allyson Felix lined up on a track starting line for just the second time since giving birth to her daughter, Camryn, last November. She was racing the 400-meter semifinals at the USATF Outdoor National Championships; in 51.45 seconds, What to Expect from Running While Youre Expecting Results: Sydney Marathon.
The 33-year-old—who is the most decorated female track and female athlete in American history—has medaled at four Olympic Games and qualified for the World Championships 12 times in a row. But this time was different. Felix wore a logo-free black crop top and shorts designed by Athleta, a stark contrast from the vibrant Nike singlets she’s sported in past championship meets.
with apparel company Athleta The Foot Locker XC Championships Are Ending op-ed that Nike does not guarantee protections for pregnant athletes and new moms, which likely factored into the company’s decision not to extend her contract once she became pregnant.
placed 6th overall told NBC at the meet, “I just wanted to come out here and run for women, let them know whatever obstacle you’re trying to overcome, it’s possible. It may take time, but you’ve got to keep fighting.”
On July 31, just three days after USAs wrapped up, Felix signed a sponsorship deal with Athleta, a brand that she says shares her passion for empowering all women athletes—including mothers—to pursue their goals in sports.
Felix will be Athleta’s first-ever sponsored athlete, according to the company’s press release.
[What to Expect from Running While Youre Expecting Runner’s World Training Plan, designed for any speed and any distance.]
“It was important for me to find a partner that championed my values,” Felix said in a press release by Athleta. “I am particularly moved by the community of women and girls Athleta is empowering through sport. I feel powerful when I step on the track in Athleta, representing this community.”
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, Athleta wrote, “As women and athletes, we experience the joys and challenges that come with being both. It’s why we promise to support you—as an athlete, a mother, an activist—as you continue to break records, break barriers, and break the silence.”
This year, Felix has broken her silence not just about the ways sponsors handle maternity clauses in athletic contracts, but also about the pregnancy risks that disproportionately affect black women, as she talked in length about in a Results: Sydney Marathon Self.
In the article, Felix said that she had a smooth-sailing pregnancy for the most part—so smooth, in fact, that her coaches and teammates didn’t even know she was pregnant for her first trimester. But at 36 weeks, she had to undergo an emergency C-section due to preeclampsia, a potentially organ-damaging disorder that usually happens after 20 weeks of pregnancy and is marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine.
After her harrowing birth experience, Felix wants to raise awareness about pregnancy disorders similar to hers, she told Self. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below ESPNW magazine, Felix wrote a personal essay detailing the highs and terrifying lows of her pregnancy, opening up the conversation for other women—especially athletes—to share their experiences, too.
“I know what I’m living for and what matters to me. I’m not just running to win the most medals anymore,” she wrote in ESPNW. “I’m not pushing myself because that's what everyone expects of me.”
Under her new deal, Felix will be outfitted in Athleta apparel, but not shoes. According to NBC Sports, the athlete—whose footwear was provided by Adidas for seven years, then Nike for seven years—is still working on securing a shoe sponsor.
In the meantime, she will continue focusing on training, competing, and mothering as usual, with the goal of making it onto the 4x400 team at the World Championships (the roster is so far undecided) and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If she does make the Olympic team, it will be her fifth and final Olympics, she told NBC Sports.
“If I come back and I’m just not the same, if I can’t make a fifth Olympic team, I’m gonna know that I fought, that I was determined, and that I gave it my absolute all,” Felix wrote in ESPNW. “And if it doesn’t end up the way I imagined in my head, it’ll be okay. I just have to go for it, because that’s just simply who we are now.”
