Watch: Allyson Felix bids adieu to sprint career with 19th World Championships medal

36-year-old American athlete Allyson Felix bid farewell to her sprinting career with her 19th World Championships medal at the World Athletics Championships Oregon 2022. Teaming up with Elija Godwin, Vernon Norwood, and Kennedy Simon, Felix helped Team USA to win the bronze medal in the mixed 4*400m relay event. During her 17-year-long illustrious career, Felix went on to win a total of 11 Olympic medals for America and now retires from the sport as a legend and one of the most decorated sprinters of the country. 

Watch Allyson Felix's final sprint:

Felix revealed her thoughts on the occasion during an interview with The Associated Press, where she admitted to being ‘super-proud’ of her career. She said, “I’m super-proud of all the stuff that’s happened on the track. But I think my biggest accomplishments are the things that didn’t necessarily get a medal.”

'Excited for all the normal things,' says Allyson Felix

She will now focus on living life at a much slower pace, where she will just be a mom and not a sprinter. Felix is a mother to her four-year-old daughter Camryn, who witnessed her mother winning the bronze medal on Friday. “Excited for all the normal things — things that might seem boring to some. I’ve grown so much from that teenage girl who started out and was so shy. I never would have imagined this: Running into my 30s. That would’ve felt ancient at 17 years old,” Felix added.

Allyson Felix's fallout with Nike

During her interview with AP, Felix also shed light on the Nike controversy she was involved in. After her deal with long-time sponsors Nike ran out in December 2017, she revealed that the brand refused salary protections to her during and after precision. This led to Nike announcing that it planned to alter contracts with female athletes, so that they don’t get penalized for having kids.

She then started her own footwear named as Saysh, wearing which she won the bronze medal in the 400m sprint event during the Tokyo Olympics 2020. “It was really bigger than just the medal or the time or any of that. It was actually a huge accomplishment for me to make it to that (Olympics) and to be able to talk to so many people who said they saw themselves in me,” Felix said about her footwear company.

A look at Allyson Felix's decorated career

Felix turned into a professional sprinter coming out of high school and specialized in 200m sprints from 2003 to 2013. In the 200m event, she memorably won the gold medal during the 2012 Olympic Games, and also became the world champion for three times between 2005 to 2008. At the same time, she also won the Olympics silver medals in the 200m sprint event in 2004 and 2010 and a bronze medal in the 2011 world championships. 

In the later half of her career, she gradually shifted to the 400m sprints, and won the silver medal in the 2011 world championships. She also became the 2015 world champion, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, 2017 world bronze medalist and 2020 Olympics bronze medallist. At the same time, she added many medals to her tally in the 4*400m women’s relay and mixed relay events.

(Image: @WorldAthletics/Twitter)