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Allyson Felix: World Athletics Championships record-breaker on life-changing year
New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/allyson-felix-world-athletics-championships-record-breaker-on-life-changing-year/
Allyson Felix: World Athletics Championships record-breaker on life-changing year
Felix and Camryn at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha
Becoming the most successful athlete in World Championships history – as she did in Doha – would once have been all-consuming for Allyson Felix. The past 12 months have changed her beyond measure.
Having a baby has also given birth to the activist hidden inside her. Felix is no longer a willing participant in the “culture of silence” around maternity rights in elite athletics. She has found her voice.
Hence the three words that dominate the homepage of her personal website:
Athlete. Mother. Activist.
Felix the mother is running late. We meet on the 42nd floor of her hotel overlooking the Persian Gulf.
With the World Athletics Championships in town, these plush surroundings are perfect for a six-time Olympic sprint champion, but not for 10-month old daughter Camryn it seems. Her body clock has yet to adjust to the Middle East and as a result Felix, 33, has been up all night.
It is not a new experience for somebody who spent most of last December sleeping in a chair in a children’s intensive care unit.
Camryn was born on 28 November 2018, weighing just 3lbs 7oz. Felix had gone into hospital for a routine check-up at 32 weeks only to be told that both she and her baby were in mortal danger.
Felix was suffering from pre-eclampsia –a potentially life-threatening condition for both mother and baby. Her blood pressure was rising while Camryn’s heart-rate was decelerating.
And so, 10 hours after arriving at hospital, Felix gave birth by emergency Caesarean to Camryn.
Ten months and one day later, Felix secured a record-breaking 12th World Championships gold medal in the 4x400m mixed relay in Doha, surpassing Usain Bolt. On Sunday’s closing day she added gold number 13 as USA won the women’s 4x400m relay.
“Last Christmas when I was in the hospital I could not have believed at all that I would be here in Doha winning medals,” she says. “This moment that was supposed to be so happy was happy, but it was also really scary and uncertain.”
Out of that uncertainty Felix found purpose. Primarily through a commitment to her daughter in the here and now that saw her spend every waking moment in the intensive care unit. But in addition, she began a two-pronged campaign of activism.
Allyson Felix (third from left) and her 4x400m mixed relay team-mates celebrating gold and a world record in Doha
May saw the normally shy Felix address a House Ways and Means Committee in the US Congress, highlighting the issue of maternal mortality among black women. In the USA, black women are nearly four times as likely to die during childbirth and twice as likely to suffer complications.
Introducing herself as “Camryn’s Mom”, Felix began her speech with the words: “I would like to share the story of the two most terrifying days of my life.” Looking back now it is no less raw.
She says: “When I was in the hospital, it was such a scary situation. I feel like I am someone who is privileged and I was in that situation and was kind of aware but not fully educated. And if I am not fully educated then there are a lot of women who aren’t fully educated as well. Speaking to Congress had to happen in order to save lives. It is way bigger than sport.”
Then Felix took on sportswear superpower Nike over maternity rights for athletes. She was involved in contract negotiations with them while dealing with her life as new mum. Nike wanted to pay Felix “70% less than before”, which she said at the time she was willing to accept.
“What I’m not willing to accept is the enduring status quo around maternity,” she wrote in a powerful New York Times article published in May. “I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth. I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could? Nike declined.”
Felix received messages of support from women across the spectrum of the working world for speaking out. And while fellow athletes also shared their stories of discrimination, her greatest inspiration was closer to home.
“I continually thought of Camryn,” she says.
“Ever since I was a teenager growing up in the sport, silence is what I saw. Whether it was teammates or other women, it would just be [kept] under wraps. It was only once they had secured a contract they would make their pregnancy public.
“I had seen it time and time again so it got to the point where I didn’t even question it, I just thought: ‘Oh, that is how things are done.’ Until I found myself in that situation. And then I thought: ‘This is not the way things should be done and this is not right.’
“Thinking about Camryn growing up, I was just constantly thinking I wanted it to be different for her.”
It will be. In May, Nike announced changes to its maternity contracts which ensure that female athletes “will no longer be financially penalised for having a child”.
“Our voices have power,” was Felix’s simple response. That and a move away from Nike to become the face of Gap’s new sportswear brand Athleta, announced in July.
Felix with baby daughter Camryn in hospital last year
Felix has admitted she was once scared to even mention having a baby. Can she believe the transformation of the last 10 months?
“I can’t. It’s really crazy but at the same time I am so happy I have made it here,” she says.
“I hope that we have seen a bit of change and that women can decide when they want to start a family. If they choose to wait then that’s great or if they choose to have a family early on then that is also great. But that is also about them deciding what is right for their family and not because of any demands of a sponsor or any financial penalty or any of that.
“To me it is so much bigger than track and field. That is my passion and I love the sport but I love that it has given me a platform to talk about issues that change lives. That is where I find the most meaning. I never could have imagined it but I am sure glad it’s happened.”
Just saying the word “activist” now brings a smile to the American’s face.
“That has been the area that I have seen the most growth,” Felix says. “Before I was definitely worried about what the reaction might be to my opinion. The backlash or what the consequences would be.
“But we are talking about the next generation. I don’t want anyone else to have to go through the situation that I went through. When I think about the word legacy those are the things I want to change and those are the things I want to be remembered for. And sometimes you have just got to be in a difficult situation or position to make some progress.”
Felix has always been a big fan of keeping training diaries throughout her career, but life as a new mum has ensured this season’s log has more gaps than she could have ever imagined. In that context, Felix must surely be proud of her achievements – on and off the track.
“I am usually very hard on myself and I still am,” she says. “But I think this year has been really difficult for me and I am proud of myself. I am still very critical of the athlete side because to me I still feel like it is all coming very slowly. But when I’m able to look back and realise that my health was in question not too long ago then I just have to be grateful.”
Grateful as an athlete – with six Olympic golds and counting. Grateful as a mother – with a healthy child. Grateful as an activist – with a newly-discovered voice she has every intention of using.
Not grateful to be asked to rank her trio of responsibilities.
“I think that is an impossible question,” she says. “Mother I would have to rank as number one for sure. As a mother you just figure things out. You have no choice because someone is depending on you. That piece is kind of ready.
“And then I feel like athlete and activist are coming hand in hand. Athlete is my job but I almost feel like activist is my responsibility. And a privilege as well. Any opportunity I have to speak out I will.”
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Women's World Cup: Captain, icon, record-breaker - who is Sam Kerr?
New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/womens-world-cup-captain-icon-record-breaker-who-is-sam-kerr/
Women's World Cup: Captain, icon, record-breaker - who is Sam Kerr?
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Sam Kerr heads in Australia’s opener
Australian captain Sam Kerr has spent her brief time at the Women’s World Cup in France so far dealing in iconic moments.
Having scored her country’s first goal of the tournament in their disappointing 2-1 opening-game loss to Italy, she delivered a robust response to their critics in a televised post-match interview after their subsequent comeback victory against Brazil, calling on the “haters” to “suck on that one”.
Just days later this somewhat controversial comment faded into relative obscurity as the 25-year-old became just the 10th footballer to score four goals in a World Cup match – guiding the Matildas past Jamaica and into a last-16 match with Norway.
It’s an achievement men’s global icons Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Pele and Diego Maradona don’t have beside their names and a statement of intent for a player who is now breathing down the neck of Brazil legend Marta for the accolade of best female player on the planet.
Sam Kerr: The next superstar
What we have learned from the Women’s World Cup so far
Who plays when as World Cup reaches Round of 16?
To diehard football fans Kerr’s heroics have not come as a major surprise.
She has been smashing records on the international and domestic fronts in recent years – earning a Ballon d’Or nomination, third place in the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2019 and a spot on the cover of the Australian edition of popular video game Fifa – but the striker’s feats on the biggest stage, and her trademark backflip celebration, have catapulted her name into households across the globe.
Who is she?
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Women’s World Cup: Sam Kerr has a few choice words for Australia’s ‘haters’
While it’s natural to assume Kerr has been playing the round ball game since a tender age, there was a time when she did not envisage picking it up at all.
Born in the Aussie Rules-mad city of Perth in Western Australia, Kerr spent her formative years with the ‘Sherrin’ in hand – inspired by her father Roger and brother Daniel, who both played at the highest level.
With a lack of options for girls Kerr never looked out of place in the boys’ competition – starring in many a game until the age of 12 when she was no longer allowed to play beside them for safety reasons.
There is now a viable semi-professional women’s league, AFLW, for young girls to aspire to, but it wasn’t the case back in 2005 – “the rug was ripped out underneath me,” she reflected prior to the World Cup – so she took her talents to football.
After a successful stint with her local club, she came to the attention of W-League side Perth Glory in 2008 and made her debut during the 2009 season. She went on to win the Players’ Player and Goal of the Year awards and was rewarded with selection in the national side – debuting off the bench against Italy at the age of 15 before making the first of three appearances at a World Cup finals aged 17.
A decade later Kerr has already etched her name into the history books and is not going away anytime soon.
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BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2019 contender Sam Kerr
Record breaker, and inspiration
The nature of Australia’s football calendar means Kerr is able to ply her trade in two domestic leagues in separate hemispheres. The W-League is played alongside the men’s A-League in the Australian summer months to give football more exposure in one of the most highly saturated sporting markets in the world.
As a result, Kerr plays with Perth Glory from October-April and Chicago Red Stars, in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) from April-September.
Despite the high workload she has been utterly dominant and is the all-time leading goal-scorer in W-League with 70 goals and the NWSL with 61 – as well as claiming the last two golden boots in both leagues.
With the NWSL currently in recess for the World Cup, Kerr leads the way with six goals from as many games. Since 2017 she has been on a goal-scoring hot streak at all levels, finding the back of the net 23 times in her last 27 appearances for Australia, 39 times from 36 outings in the W-League and 39 times in 48 NWSL games.
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Highlights: Jamaica 1-4 Australia
In February, new Matildas coach Ante Milicic turned to Kerr in a bid to restore stability following former coach Alen Stajcic’s controversial sacking. Handing her the captaincy armband, he challenged the superstar to “push the team to a new level” in their bid to claim a maiden World Cup in France.
She has done so in the best possible fashion, setting the ultimate example again and again – not least in Tuesday’s tournament-saving win over Jamaica.
“She’s a joke. She just shows up doesn’t she whenever you need a superhero,” defender Steph Catley said after the game.
A star on and off the field
Kerr is more than just a goal-scoring machine. Off the field she has been a vocal activist for equality in women’s sport and was named Young Australian of the Year 2018 for her work.
As an openly gay athlete she is role model to many young women and spoke publicly for the first timeabout her relationship with Chicago and Perth team-mate Nikki Stanton in a recent pre-World Cup campaign with sponsor Nike.
Kerr suffered a career-threatening knee injury in 2014 and credited Stanton for helping her maintain a positive attitude during the lengthy recovery process.
“Nikki helped me a lot through my injury. That may be why I feel so deeply connected to her, because that was probably the worst time in my career,” she said. “At the same time I had one of the most exciting things building up in my life.”
Kerr’s humility is also one of her strongest attributes and no doubt essential to remaining grounded amongst all the fanfare.
After her performance against Jamaica she was asked about the most inspiring moment of the World Cup thus far. She did not mention the four goals, but instead pointed to the emotional scenes after Thailand scored their first ever World Cup goal on Sunday.
“It kind of gave me that extra bit of pride walking out for my country, seeing how much it meant to another country to just score at a World Cup,” she said.
Sam Kerr has scored 36 goals in 80 internationals for Australia
The business end
Unlike Australia’s men’s side, the women entered the World Cup with a genuine chance of taking home the silverware at the business end – but now there’s no second chance.
The Matildas were stunned by Italy in their opening fixture and conceded five goals across three group stage games.
On paper they should beat Norway in the last 16 on Saturday – the Aussies are ranked number six in the world, six spots above their Scandinavian rivals, who are also without the services of BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year Ada Hegerberg, who has boycotted the national side since 2017 in protest at the Norwegian Football Federation’s treatment of the women’s game.
In the absence of one star of the game, the stage is set for Kerr to steal the whole spotlight, perhaps provide another iconic moment, and silence the “haters” yet again.
BBC Sport has launched #ChangeTheGame this summer to showcase female athletes in a way they never have been before. Through more live women’s sport available to watch across the BBC this summer, complemented by our journalism, we are aiming to turn up the volume on women’s sport and alter perceptions.Find out more here.
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2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ - News - Lions proud of record-breaker Wague
2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ – News – Lions proud of record-breaker Wague
[ad_1] 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ – News – Lions proud of record-breaker Wague
Wague became Africa’s youngest World Cup goalscorer
Initially, the right-back did not know about the record
”I couldn’t have dreamed of anything better”
By Cynthia Nzetia with Senegal
If you are old enough, you are good enough, and if there is one player at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ who proves that adage…
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taylorswift global superstar & professional record-breaker <3 :)
Record looked down shyly at tge base of the door into Button's store. His hoodie that she made him, his favorite, that he cherished dearly, had long rips going though the sleeves. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
Buttons was busy packing up boxes of display outfits amd accessories to move out of her old shop and into the new one. She fluttered back and forth, placing things in their appropriate boxes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw somepony standing at the door. “Record!” she exclaimed when she recognized him. “Come in! I apologize for the mess. I’m in the process of relocating. Can I help you with anything?”
