Safety of women athletes ‘a real problem’

With a report 20 World Championship and 11 Olympic medals to her identify, Allyson Felix is probably the most adorned observe and discipline athlete of all time.

And never content material with merely trailblazing on the observe, lately she has develop into a fierce advocate for girls, significantly within the realm of maternal well being rights.

With violence in opposition to girls athletes overshadowing the game this 12 months, Felix tells BBC 100 Ladies that she is enormously involved for the security of girls athletes in some components of the world.

“There must be a change within the tradition. One thing isn’t proper, and it does make me fear,” she says.

Felix says she was devastated to listen to the information of the dying of fellow Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on hearth by her boyfriend in Kenya earlier this 12 months.

The mother-of-two was the third feminine athlete to be killed in Kenya in three years.

Felix says it is a “actual drawback” that she is going to prioritise as a lately elected member of the IOC Athletes’ Fee, a physique that represents athletes inside the Olympic motion.

“The results must be extreme, however I believe there must be greater than that,” she says. “I believe now we have to rally across the sports activities group and are available collectively.”

The American runner, who retired in 2022, is among the girls featured on the BBC’s 100 Ladies record, which annually names 100 inspiring and influential girls around the globe. This 12 months the record is specializing in the theme of “resilience”, which is especially apt in Felix’s case.

In 2018, when 32 weeks pregnant, she was recognized with extreme pre-eclampsia and given an emergency caesarean. Her daughter, Camryn, hung out in a neonatal intensive care unit.

The next 12 months, in a powerful op-ed for The New York Times, Felix took on her then-sponsor, Nike, over maternity pay, revealing Nike’s menace to chop her pay by 70% if motherhood affected her future athletic efficiency.

Three months later, Nike modified its stance and new contracts assured an athlete’s pay and bonuses for 18 months round being pregnant. Three different athletic attire firms additionally launched maternity safety for sponsored athletes.

In her article, Felix wrote being pregnant was “the kiss of dying” in her business.

“I used to be terrified what the results could be. I used to be terrified how it will be obtained. It simply wasn’t in my nature. And so it was actually tough to have the ability to simply be weak,” she says.

The choice to talk out may have ended her profession, however lower than a 12 months after giving delivery, Felix made historical past when she secured her twelfth World Championships gold medal within the 4x400m blended relay in Doha, surpassing Usain Bolt’s report.

Felix has since carved out a brand new path for herself.

Two years after parting with Nike, she launched a footwear firm together with her brother, Wes, in 2021, promoting athletic-inspired footwear modelled on girls’s ft.

This 12 months, the mom of two was instrumental in guaranteeing there was a nursery within the Olympic village – the primary ever out there to athletes competing within the Video games.

She considers it an enormous win, however says extra must be completed.

“If you do come again, that is an enormous barrier to have the ability to re-enter the game and determine travelling the world and who’s caring to your baby,” she says.

“To have the ability to take one thing off of that plate, that is what I look to do.”

Going ahead, she desires to see sponsors change the way in which they symbolize girls athletes.

Her latest enterprise, All the time Alpha, is a administration agency devoted completely to girls’s sports activities, which she says is a part of her legacy.

“Historically, girls have been put in the identical field [as men]. I believe girls should not be an afterthought, particularly as we take into consideration the enterprise and the way technique is created.

“In the entire negotiations with Nike, I used to be coping with a group of all males, who have been principally telling me how I might come again from childbirth. Now there are extra girls who’ve seats on the desk and have energy, however we nonetheless have a protracted solution to go.”

A part of her function with the Athletes’ Fee will probably be listening to different athletes and advocating on their behalf.

“If it’s your resolution to have a baby within the midst of your profession, then do this,” she says. “We’re working actually arduous to assist girls who make that selection.”

Felix, who gave delivery to her second baby this 12 months – her son, Trey – has additionally been very vocal in highlighting the disproportionately excessive threat of maternal mortality amongst black girls within the US.

This 12 months she was awarded a $20m grant from Melinda Gates, to enhance maternal well being outcomes. She has not dominated out utilizing the cash to assist world tasks.

“I’ve most of my expertise within the US and in my very own communities, however I’m actively chatting with organisations everywhere in the world,” she says.

In response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), black girls within the US are thrice extra more likely to die from a pregnancy-related trigger than white girls.

“There’s nonetheless an implicit bias in our healthcare system, and we’re not seeing the numbers change fast sufficient,” she says.

Felix believes that ladies are too usually being ignored once they report issues to their docs.

“What I hear is that they aren’t being heard,” she says. “It is not going to show round if we’re not educating our medical professionals.”

Felix says having a daughter makes the topic of girls’s well being “very private”.

With abortion rights again within the highlight following the US presidential election, she believes girls ought to be capable to have a selection.

“You recognize, as a mum or dad, now we have seen so many issues change on the earth, it’s a scary time,” she says.

“I do take into consideration her and her era and the issues that they is perhaps with out.”

However she hopes her advocacy will encourage her youngsters in years to return.

“I would like them at all times to know that it is best to have an effect, that it is best to assist others, that it is best to arise for what you imagine in.”

BBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential girls around the globe yearly. Observe BBC 100 Ladies on Instagram and Facebook. Be a part of the dialog utilizing #BBC100Women.