Episode 6 Allyson Felix-Does Motherhood prevent us from giving our best to our careers‪?‬ Black Woman's Renaissance

In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on August, 6, 2021, Felix concluded her illustrious 17 year Olympic career by acquiring her 11th Olympic medal, after winning gold in the women's 4 × 400 meters final, overtaking the 10 medals of track phenom Carl Lewis.   Additionally, The 35-year-old, the oldest American female track and field athlete to win a gold medal.

In a New York Times op-ed, she accused Nike, her longtime sponsor and a kingmaker in her sport, of penalizing her and other pregnant athletes in contract negotiations. The move was fraught. Felix risked losing her primary source of income and could have been blacklisted from major meets. Felix soon left Nike and signed with Athleta, becoming the women-focused apparel brand’s first athlete sponsor, paving the way for Simone Biles to make a similar move to Athleta in April. On June 23, Felix announced the founding of her own footwear and apparel brand, Saysh. Far from following corporate expectations, Felix is now taking full agency over her career—and legacy. Earlier this year, Bianca Williams, a Nike-sponsored sprinter from Britain who had a baby in March 2020, reached out to Felix. After Felix called out the sportswear giant, Nike expanded payment protections for pregnant women and new mothers. The takeaways You write your own story. It’s not over until you give up. Never Give up! Be an advocate for yourself and other women in your circle. Research Ob-Gyns who are sensitive to the health needs of black women. Open your own doors. When they say no, create your own yes.

This is why World Champion Sprinter Allyson Felix is our Black Woman of Renaissance of the week. 

In June 2018, Allyson told Wes she was pregnant. Fearing that Nike could rescind the offer if it found she was starting a family, Allyson and Wes decided to hide her pregnancy. Olympic runner Kara Goucher left Nike in 2014, and has said the company stopped paying her when she got pregnant with her son in 2010. Another former Nike runner, Alysia Montaño, claimed the company also told her it would stop paying her when she was pregnant.

She is an active voice for women, and especially for mothers who too often hear what she heard when she got pregnant with her now 2-year-old daughter, Cammy: That once women start having babies, their best athletic days are behind them.

During pregnancy, Felix developed preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure and adverse childbirth outcomes that is more prevalent in African-American women, which contributed to Camryn’s dangerous early birth. Though everyone ended up fine, America’s vast racial disparities in maternal mortality could well have pointed to a different outcome: a CDC study published in 2019 found that a Black woman with at least a college degree was 5.2 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than her white counterpart. That year, Felix felt compelled to testify before Congress on the topic. “We need to provide women of color with more support during their pregnancies,” Felix told the House Ways and Means Committee. “Research shows that racial bias in our maternal health care system includes things like providers spending less time with Black mothers, underestimating the pain of their Black patients, ignoring symptoms and dismissing complaints.”

The takeaways

1. You write your own story.  It’s not over until you give up. Never Give up!

2. Be an advocate for yourself and other women in your circle.  Research Ob-Gyns who are sensitive to the health needs of black women.  

3. Open your own doors.  When they say no, create your own yes.