Allyson Felix, American sprinter
Allyson Michelle Felix (born November 18, 1985) is an American track and field athlete, who specialized in the 200 meters sprint from 2003 to 2013 and then gradually shifted to the 400 meters sprint later in her career. Her racing repertoire also spans the 100 meters, 4 × 100 meters relay, and 4 × 400 meters relay. At 200 meters, Felix is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion (2005–2009), a two-time Olympic silver medalist (2004 and 2008), and the 2011 world bronze medalist. At 400 meters, she is the 2015 world champion, 2011 world silver medalist, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, 2017 world bronze medalist, and 2020 Olympic bronze medalist. Across the short distances, Felix is a ten-time U.S. national champion (2004, 2005, 2007–2012, 2015, and 2016).
Although individual Olympic glory was mostly elusive, Felix played a key role on the United States women's relay teams, winning six additional Olympic gold medals: four consecutive medals at 4 × 400 meters (2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020), and two at 4 × 100 meters (2012 and 2016). The women's 2012 U.S. Olympic 4 × 100 meters team set the current women's 4 × 100 meters world record at 40.82 seconds with the 2016 team also setting the second fastest time in history at 41.01 seconds. With these six golds from team relays and one from an individual event, Felix became the first female track and field athlete to ever win seven Olympic gold medals. She is also the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history and the most decorated American track and field athlete in Olympic history, having earned 11 total medals from five consecutive Olympic Games. Felix currently holds the title of the most decorated athlete, male or female, in World Athletics Championship history with 18 career medals, 7 from individual events and 11 from team relays.Amongst Felix's notable performances, her 200 meters personal best of 21.69 seconds, which was set at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, ranked at the time as the third-fastest time ever ran by an American woman and sixth-fastest time by a female athlete in history. She also ran a 47.72-second leg on the U.S. women's 4 × 400 meters relay team at the 2015 Beijing World Championships, recording the fastest split ever by an American woman, and third-fastest split ever by a female athlete.Felix, along with Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher, is credited with stirring public outcry over Nike's refusal to guarantee salary protections for its pregnant athletes, prompting the sportswear brand to subsequently expand its maternal policy in 2019. Two years after her departure from Nike, the athlete turned entrepreneur launched her own footwear company, Saysh, in June 2021.She was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020 and 2021.