Olympic athlete Allyson Felix's net worth may surprise you,
but it demonstrates exactly how successful she has been in her chosen
profession. Felix has a stunning $4.5 million in celebrity net worth, having
won more Olympic track and field medals than any other female athlete. Despite
how well Felix had done so far, she was afraid to achieve her lifetime desire
of being a parent.
With 18 medals at the World Championships and 11 gold, three
silver, and one bronze at the Olympic Games, she is the most decorated athlete
in the annals of athletics.
She first caught attention when she was just 17 years old,
and since then, her climb has been swift. She won the 100-meter global junior
championship in 2001, and in 2004, she met the requirements to compete in her
first Olympics in Athens, where she took home a silver medal and set a world
junior record.
She began her journey at the World Championships in 2005 in
Helsinki, when, at the age of 19, she won the 200-meter world championship.
Since then, she has won medals at every World Championship
and Olympic Games in which she has competed, with the exception of Moscow 2013,
when she suffered an injury during the 200-meter final.
Allyson is an Olympian and world-class track and field
athlete who was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, a potentially deadly
pregnancy-related condition, when she was 32 weeks pregnant. She was astounded
to learn during a pregnancy exam that she had excessive protein in her urine
and had developed high blood pressure despite her exceptional level of fitness
and intense training. Her doctor admitted her to the hospital for additional
monitoring and testing. She was then taken to the hospital for an emergency
C-section. Her doctor's fast actions may have saved her life.
Despite the hardships she faced, Allyson's story is not
uncommon since more than 700 American women die each year as a consequence of
complications during pregnancy or delivery. Some may die, while others may have
long-term health consequences. Every death is tragic, especially because
two-thirds of pregnancy-related fatalities might have been avoided.
Allyson, like every other pregnant woman, felt prepared”she
is a professional athlete, had a birth plan, attended prenatal checkups and
birthing courses, and exercised throughout her pregnancy. She had no idea she
would have such a major condition during her pregnancy. Despite this, she was
diagnosed with severe preeclampsia two months before her due date and had to be
brought to the hospital right away, resulting in an emergency C-section.
After becoming a mother, Felix left the well-known
sportswear company and joined forces with other athletes such as Alysia Montano
to fight for unrestricted maternity leave for athletes. Nike was obliged to
modify its contractual policy in this regard.
In a May 2019 interview with the New York Times, Allyson
said, "Ironically, one of the decisive factors for me in signing with Nike
about a decade ago was what I felt were Nike's basic ideals." I could have
signed somewhere for a higher salary.
When I visited with the company's leadership in 2010, one
lady informed me about the Girl Effect, a Nike-sponsored campaign that
advocated teenage females as the key to improving communities throughout the
world. She stated that by joining Nike, she would be able to assist in
empowering women. I believed her when she said "Nike believed in women and
girls".
In her words, "Not only Nike, but the whole sports gear
industry's treatment of female athletes has disappointed me." This goes
beyond pregnancy alone. "While we may support the companies whose products
we promote, we also need to hold them responsible when they use our image in
their marketing efforts to win over the next generation of athletes and
customers."
Due to the words of a few courageous women, the industry
moved in the correct direction a week after her Neyworktimes interview. A
number of companies, including Burton, Altra, Nuun, and Brooks, have announced
new contractual guarantees for women who become pregnant while using their
products. A few days later, Nike said that it was changing its maternity policy
and that it was "adding phrasing to future contracts for female athletes
that will safeguard their compensation throughout pregnancy." I applaud Nike
for recognising the need for reform and anxiously anticipate further details
from Nike and the other companies in the industry who have not yet agreed to
contractually protect women.
Camryn, her daughter, had to spend her first month of life
in the neonatal critical care unit since she was born weighing only 3 pounds, 7
ounces. Fortunately, Camryn is now a healthy toddler who is developing
normally, and Allyson is a healthy mother who is an advocate for maternal
health. In an effort to spur change, she is also concentrating on bringing
attention to the greater burden of unfavourable pregnancy outcomes for black
women.
Two years after quitting Nike, the
athlete-turned-entrepreneur launched her own footwear company, Saysh, in June
2021. In 2022, Allyson Felix and Wes Felix, her brother and business partner,
announced that their Saysh footwear company had closed an $8 million Series A
investment round. The funds will be used to develop their company immediately,
most notably by adding new retail partners and increasing their footwear
collection.
She has partnered with the Women's Sport Foundation and her sponsor, Gap's Athleta, to provide professional mom-athletes with $200,000 in travel grants. Six of the first nine recipients, who were recently announced by the organization, will go to Tokyo next week for the 2021 Olympics. Each of them will receive $10,000 for childcare.
The battle has just begun for Felix. She has had similar experiences played back to her as she has recounted hers. "It's also not just in athletics”it's across the board, and there's still a long way to go," she said.